The tenfold penalty increase of $1500 to $15,000 for corporations and $750 to $7500 for individuals for these offences is effective across the state after the government gazetted the Protection of the Environment Operations (General) Amendment (Fees and Penalty Notices) this week.
These 10 offences are:
- Failure to comply with a clean-up notice by occupiers or polluters;
- Failure to comply with a prevention notice;
- Pollution of waters;
- Failure to hold a licence for a scheduled, premises-based activity;
- Failure to hold a licence for a scheduled, non-premises-based activity;
- Exceeding standards or air impurities;
- Unlawful transporting or depositing of waste (asbestos and hazardous);
- Unlawful transporting or depositing of waste (other);
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Failure to comply with licence conditions, except for the late or non-submission of an annual return; and
- Use of land as a waste facility without lawful authority.
If local government issues these penalties, the fines are $4000 for an individual and $8000 for a corporation.
The rise in fines should not come as a shock to the sector, given the government announced its intentions to significantly increase penalty notice amounts in May.
"Offenders are already on notice that they may be sentenced to up to seven years in jail or be fined up to $5 million," state Environment Minister Rob Stokes said.
"These changes better reflect the community's expectations and shift the power back in favour of the independent regulator rather than the polluter.
“For too long, the EPA has been operating under conditions that make it difficult to effectively regulate operators who continually do the wrong thing with penalties that are simply not significant enough to change poor behaviour.”
EPA CEO and chair Barry Buffier said the regulator strongly supported the changes.
"The community has made it clear that they believe the penalties being issued to companies after an environmental incident are too low," Buffier said.
"The EPA's compliance policy will continue to guide decisions made by the EPA around when to issue penalty notices, ensuring its compliance activities and actions are consistent, fair and credible."
The penalty amounts for 19 other serious environmental offences have also increased to $8000 for corporations and $4000 for individuals if issued by the EPA and $4000 and $2000 respectively when issued by local councils.
NSW is not the only state to increase penalties. It was revealed last week that the Queensland government had also enacted amendments to its State Penalties Enforcement Regulation, resulting in an average penalty increase of 500%.
