Permissions notifications

EPA issues permissions including licences, permits and registrations to duty holders. Each permission type comes with conditions that you must comply with. Most of these include requirements to immediately notify EPA if certain circumstances occur.

G2 notifications

Under condition G2 of your licence, permit or registration, if any of these have happened, you need to notify EPA immediately:

A discharge, emission or deposit is released which gives rise to, or may give rise to, actual or potential harm to human health or the environment.
A malfunction, breakdown or failure of risk control measures has occurred at the activity site which could reasonably be expected to give rise to actual or potential harm to human health or the environment.
Any breach of the permission.

In an emergency

If the incident has caused an emergency such as a fire or major hazardous spill, call 000 immediately. Follow up with a notification to EPA as soon as possible afterwards.

Information to provide to EPA

Follow the steps below if you need to notify us of an incident under G2:

Step one

Call the EPA contact centre on 1300 372 842 (24 hours). You’ll be asked for:

your contact details
your permission ID
your business name and address
the time and date of the incident
the permission condition(s) you've breached, if relevant
what caused the incident, or what you suspect caused the incident
what you think the impact to human health or the environment may be
how you’re managing the incident.

Step two

We’ll email you a notification form to be completed. Fill it in and return to us within five business days.

This form must be returned to EPA to complete your notification process. The form will include similar questions to the above.

Further duties related to G2 incidents

If your permission notification relates to pollution that causes or threatens to cause material harm to human health or the environment, you must report this as a notifiable incident.

If the incident happened while you were engaging in a permissioned activity, you’ll also need to reference your permission ID in the notification. If you report correctly, we’ll accept this as complying with the relevant permission condition.

Where the incident has caused or is likely to cause harm to human health or the environment, you’re also required to restore the environment.

G3 notifications

Condition G3 of your permission details the types of business administration changes that must be notified to EPA. You must notify EPA of business administration changes within 48 hours.

Call the EPA contact centre on 1300 372 842 (24 hours). You’ll be asked for:

your contact details
your permission ID
your business name and address
details of the administrative change.

We may contact you following the notification if we need further information.

Privacy collection notice

EPA collects your information to identify who is submitting a permissions notification and for what reason. This information may be used to investigate and evaluate non-compliance or contravention of the Environment Protection Act 2017.

Your information may be used to contact you to provide updates on your notification or to seek further details about it. Your information may also be used to arrange for EPA inspections relating to your permissions notification.

If you do not provide the information required by this form, including personal information, EPA will be unable to accept your notification.

You may contact EPA directly at 1300 372 842 or by email contact@epa.vic.gov.au to request access to your personal information.

Read the EPA’s privacy policy.