EPA and Local Government: Empowering you as a joint regulator
Webinar 5th May 2021 transcript 

Clare Moran:  Hello and welcome to one in a series of webinars that the EPA is running in the lead­up to 1 July and the commencement of the Environment Protection Act 2017. My name is Clare Moran, and I am a senior program manager in our Regulatory Standards and Enforcement Division. Some of you I have met or emailed during the past almost two years that I've been working on this topic. I hope that you will find today informative, and I want to say thanks to many of you who have provided feedback over that time to help us get to where we are today. The EPA values our working relationship with local government. You are our partners; you jointly regulate with us under the Environment Protection Act; and you are duty holders, meaning that you have obligations under the environment protection framework. Today's webinar aims to prepare you in your role as a joint regulator, as we head towards the commencement of the new Environment Protection Act on 1 July this year.
The EPA acknowledges Aboriginal people as the First Peoples and traditional custodians of the land and water on which we live, work and depend. We pay our respects to Aboriginal elders past and present. I am coming to you today from Wurundjeri country. As Victoria's environmental regulator, we pay our respects to how country has been protected and cared for by Aboriginal people over many tens of thousands of years. We recognise the unique spiritual and cultural significance of land, water and all that is in the environment, as well as the continuing connection and aspirations for country of Aboriginal people and traditional custodians. The image that you see on this slide is the EPA's Aboriginal inclusion symbol, the Giamwillim shield. It was commissioned by the EPA from Wurundjeri artist Mandy Nicholson; it signifies protection.
I would like to remind you that this session is being recorded. The recording, slides and relevant links will be made available to all who have registered today. The best way to communicate with our support team is through the Q&A feature at the right of your screen. If you would like to access the closed captions, you can switch them on at the bottom of this video window where it says 'CC'. We are so pleased that there has been such an excellent response to this event, with over 680 people having registered and over 45 pre-submitted questions. The information presented in today's webinar is provided as general guidance only. It does not constitute legal or professional advice and should not be relied on as a replacement for consulting the laws directly to understand how they may apply to you or your council. If you have any specific concerns, you should obtain professional advice.
I will go now to the agenda. We have three different speakers today to focus on the key topics where councils are empowered to regulate under the act. I will take you through on­site wastewater management systems; then Will Mosley, who is one of the EPA's officers for the protection of the local environment, will talk about residential noise; and, following Will, Clare Dawson will talk through litter and other waste. Some of you will know Clare as our lead developer of the three toolkits, which we will be talking to later on.
We have had an excellent response to this webinar, as I have mentioned, with over 680 registrations and over 45 pre-submitted questions. We have allowed time for questions after each topic, and we have tried to address many of the pre-submitted questions in our presentations. We have also selected the top five questions most commonly asked by you, from the questions that you submitted when you registered, to answer during the Q&A. We encourage you to continue asking questions related to the content that you will see today, using the Q&A feature available to you. You also have the opportunity to up-vote the questions that you most want covered today; please use this tool to help us to prioritise the most popular questions. Our presenters, thank goodness, will be helped in answering your questions by a small panel of EPA experts who will be working in the background. Over the coming weeks, we will work through the questions that we aren't able to answer today and commit to making available to you the most frequently asked questions and answers. As for questions or comments related to current issues, we won't get to those today. I reiterate that this session is about the new laws and council's regulatory role; so please be mindful of that, when submitting your questions. Queries relating to pollution incidents or issues should be directed to our contact centre on 1300 372 842. Also, we will not have time today to answer your questions on council's role as a duty holder under the act; this includes some pre-submitted questions that we received about landfills, waste transfer stations and resource recovery. If you or your colleagues are looking for information and support, there are plenty of resources available on the EPA website, including two upcoming webinars.
Today we have tailored the information to be operationally focused so that you can have a taste of how the new laws will work for you in practice. That means that we will not be covering the background to why the laws have changed or the changes across the entire act. If you would like this information, you can watch our 'new laws' webinar, which was held in February this year and is available on our website. We have broken it into chapters with clickable time codes so that you can watch what is relevant to you.
In preparing councils to assume their powers under the new act, we have focused our efforts on building their capability and confidence to enable them to understand and apply the new powers. We know that capacity and resourcing are significant issues for councils, as they are for the EPA. Just like it is now, councils and the EPA will have to continue to prioritise their work and make decisions about where to direct effort that best protects their communities; the new laws change nothing in this regard. The key tools for building your capability and confidence are four new guidance documents; these are all either finalised and published on our website, or they will be in the very near future. We will be talking through the operational toolkits today, which are the bottom three in the diagram: regulating litter and waste, regulating on­site wastewater management systems and regulating residential noise. When we talked to councils about what they would need in order to be ready and considered the resources that we had available and our past experience, we chose to concentrate our efforts on producing these detailed toolkits as the key resources. Of course, there is always more that could be done, but we think these provide a very solid foundation.
One of the key changes is that there will be a new delegation to councils. This delegation applies only to on­site wastewater management systems and residential construction noise. There are limitations on who can be appointed and how the powers are enforced. We want to acknowledge these limitations upfront and let you know that we are working with DELWP on options to address them. There will be more detail in the next two presentations on the delegation. Just to be clear, the delegation is not relevant to regulating litter and other waste.
The EPA is preparing to sign off on a memorandum of understanding with the Municipal Association of Victoria, on behalf of local government. This is a formal acknowledgement of the important working relationship between EPA, MAV and local government, in the protection of human health and the environment from pollution and waste. Also, it provides a framework for EPA, MAV and local government to work more collaboratively and efficiently towards achieving environment protection outcomes for the Victorian community. We thank MAV for recommending to us the MOU; we encourage you to explore with MAV how the MOU can work for you; and we look forward to jointly developing some specific and tangible actions under the MOU. Recently, the EPA has added new local government pages to our website; these are a good starting point for accessing the tools and resources that we will talk through today.
We will go now to the detailed presentations. Our first topic is on­site wastewater management systems, which include septic systems, with a capacity of less than or equal to 5,000 litres on any day. If we reflect on why we are here today, at the most basic level, it's about protecting people and the environment. We know that a poorly managed on-site wastewater management system can cause harm to the environment and human health. We both have a role focused on preventing such harms, which is made even stronger by the preventative focus of the new act. Having the right tools to prevent harm is also important, and we will be exploring those tools today. One of the key things that you need to know is that the scope of council's role as a regulator of on­site wastewater management systems has not changed—you currently have a regulatory role, and you will continue to have a regulatory role—but the laws and powers have changed. Finally, there are materials and resources to help you to be ready to regulate on 1 July.
Councils have an important and longstanding role in regulating the construction, installation, alteration and use of on­site wastewater management systems. This role continues under the new environment protection laws, with councils having additional powers and tools. So what has changed? The new laws have new requirements for the operation and maintenance of systems for owners and occupiers of the land on which such systems are located. Penalties, which councils can enforce, apply for non-compliance. There is better coverage of legacy or very old systems that have never had a permit; and there are new authorised officer powers via a delegation from the EPA to councils, allowing councils to take action under the general environmental duty.
If you take only one action away from today, it is that you should have a read of the on­site wastewater management toolkit, as it's your go-to resource to understand the new laws and powers. There are 60­plus pages of detailed operational information for councils. This is an entirely new document, with a compliance and enforcement focus. It applies from 1 July 2021, when the Environment Protection Act 2017 comes into effect. It complements but does not replace the code of practice. You will be able to access the toolkit at the EPA website next week, when it is published, and we will make sure that we let you know when it is ready. The EPA has developed this toolkit with councils and for councils. Since the release of the draft environment protection regulations in September 2019, there has been a high level of interest and engagement from councils. We have been working intensively to understand and address this feedback, both by directly making changes to the regulations and by providing support materials. A draft toolkit was distributed to approximately 35 councils and stakeholders in March this year for feedback. The Regulating onsite wastewater management systems: local government toolkit will be published on the EPA's website next week.
It is important for councils and council officers to understand the source of their powers. Under the new framework, there is a suite of powers for councils and council officers from different sources. There are direct powers under the act and regulations for issuing permits and regulating the operation and maintenance of systems. There are also powers delegated by the EPA to councils, allowing them to appoint authorised officers for specific purposes. I will talk about the delegated powers in more detail later.
Before we go into the detail, let's take a bird's-eye view of the legislative framework. There are three segments: permitting, on the left in the dark blue; operation and maintenance, in the middle in the green; and the delegated powers, in the light blue, to issue improvement and prohibition notices. Sitting over the top is the general environmental duty, which is broad and applies to all activities. First, we have permitting. Councils will continue to administer permits for the construction, installation or alteration of a system with a capacity of up to 5,000 litres on any day. The regulations provide criteria for councils to consider, when assessing permit applications, and the circumstances when a permit must be refused. Councils are not able to take enforcement action for permit-related offences.
I will go now to operation and maintenance. Following feedback on the draft regulations, a new section has been included in the final regulations; this is to reduce reliance on the general environmental duty and to provide greater certainty and clarity for households and local government regulators. This section sets clear obligations for persons in management or control of land on which a system is located. These changes introduce new duties for the operation and maintenance of systems from 1 July 2022, including a duty to notify local government of system failures; a duty to keep maintenance records; a requirement to respond to problems; and the ability for local government to order maintenance of a system, if it poses a risk to human health or the environment or is not in good working order.
This table shows you the requirements for a person in management or control regarding where events arise and where an infringement notice maybe issued. This table shows you the requirements for a landowner. You will see that, for each of these landowner requirements, an offence applies and an infringement notice can be issued. Prescribed fees are outlined in appendix 2 of the toolkit. These have been set in accordance with the Department of Treasury and Finance's cost recovery guidelines and informed by public comment. Councils may retain the fees for these permits or permit-exemption applications. The regulations also allow a council to reduce or waive these fees, if it is satisfied that it is reasonable to do so. All councils received detailed information on fees from the EPA last year, and this information is included in the toolkit.
Why do you now require a delegation from the EPA, when you didn't need one in the past? There are a few key reasons. The delegation ensures that councils have clear and unambiguous powers that are essential to their role: for example, powers of entry and inspection. The delegation also ensures that a council officer can issue the notice ordering maintenance; this notice can only be issued by an authorised officer under the Environment Protection Act. The delegation also allows councils to access the powers of the general environmental duty, which is the cornerstone of the new act. There may be situations where the regulations cannot address an impact or harm to human health and the environment: for example, where there is negligence on behalf of a person manufacturing or installing a system, which gives rise to a risk to human health or the environment. Another example might be where a system is operating in the way that it was designed to and being adequately maintained but, nonetheless, gives rise to risks to human health and the environment. While we have done much to prepare, both the EPA and councils will be learning as they go, applying the general environmental duty.
The model for the delegation, which we understand councils are familiar with, has been endorsed by the EPA's governing board and is a two­step process. The first step is that the EPA's governing board makes a delegation, and the second step is that councils then appoint their employees as authorised officers. This gives councils the flexibility to appoint appropriate roles and numbers of council officers to their situation. The instrument of delegation is well progressed, and we expect sign­off in early June. A draft is available for councils to review. If you would like to review the draft, please place a message to that effect in the chat, and we will follow up with you afterwards. It is important that you are aware of the limitations of the delegation. Councils cannot directly prosecute non-compliance with an improvement or prohibition notice; they will need to refer this to the EPA for follow-up. The EPA is developing the referral process currently and will communicate this to councils before 1 July. The second limitation is that councils can only appoint employees or a class of employees as authorised officers, and it is our understanding that this does not include contractors. You should seek legal advice if you have questions on this. The EPA has heard council feedback that these limitations present significant operational challenges and may impact on how councils use these delegated powers. We have been working with our colleagues at DEWLP to explore options for addressing these limitations.
The EPA has prepared the following generic templates for your use: the notice ordering maintenance; the improvement notice; the prohibition notice; and, for each of the above, a version that can be used for any amendments. The toolkit describes these notices and when they can be used, but it does not include the templates. The templates will be emailed to councils directly later in May. We know that you will want to know where the revenue from penalties goes. Councils can retain penalties for an offence under part 4, which is the 'permissioning' part of the act. These include offences for engaging in a permitted activity without a permit and for breach of permit conditions. Penalties for other offences under the regulations go to consolidated funds.
This information about assessment standards was shared with councils recently, and here is a quick reminder. The requirement for an on­site wastewater treatment plant to meet appropriate standards set by EPA, evidenced by a certificate issued by an assessment body, will continue under the new framework. These standards are set out currently in the wastewater code of practice; but, from 1 July 2021, they will be continued in the regulations. In highly exceptional circumstances involving innovative on­site wastewater treatment plants, the EPA may grant a permit applicant an exemption from this certificate requirement, under section 459 of the act. More information about the appropriate standards and the transition into the new framework can be found via the link on this slide.
To recap, there are lots of resources available to you, and here are some of the key ones. You can read the regulations; you'll be able to read the toolkit next week, when it's available; you can subscribe to the EPA's local government bulletin to help stay in touch with any updates; and the EPA has also prepared a fact sheet to help owner/occupiers and councils, and this will be coming when the regulations are finalised later in May.
We now have time for questions. We will start by addressing the five most popular pre-submitted questions that we received through your registrations. Then, in our allotted time, we will take as many questions as we can from the live audience. I would just remind you, please, to use the up-voting feature to help to ensure that we answer the most popular of your questions. I remind you that this Q&A relates to on­site wastewater management systems.

Will Mosley:  Thanks for that, Clare.

Clare Moran:  Thanks, Will.

Will Mosley:  The first pre-loaded question is: will the new laws have any effect on the requirements of council's domestic wastewater management plans or SEPP waters?

Clare Moran:  Thanks, Will. When the amended EPA Act commences on 1 July 2021, SEPPs and WMPs will cease to have formal legal status in Victoria's new environment protection framework. Some of the content in SEPPs has been translated into more fit-for-purpose subordinate instruments: for example, environmental reference standards and regulations. A limited number of clauses in SEPP waters will also remain in force for up to two years, up to 30 June 2023, under the environment protection transitional regulation. This includes clause 29, which requires councils to develop a domestic wastewater management plan. I think, to paraphrase that, it does not sound as though there are any changes to the requirements for domestic wastewater management plans in the short term.

Will Mosley:  Thanks, Clare. The second pre-loaded question is: how do I choose which enforcement path to follow for a wastewater management system that has an offsite discharge?

Clare Moran:  Part C of the toolkit explains how councils can regulate risks and impacts from systems, under Victoria's key preventative environmental law, the general environmental duty. Appendix 3 of the toolkit provides an investigation flow chart that lays out the options available.

Will Mosley:  Are you ready for question 3?

Clare Moran:  Yes.

Will Mosley:  After 1 July, how would these homeowners find out what their duties are?

Clare Moran:  The EPA, in consultation with the MAV on­site wastewater management systems working group, developed a fact sheet for owners and occupiers of land. It will be published in the next few weeks—later in May, we expect—and councils can refer and link to this guidance on the EPA's website.

Will Mosley:  Question 4: what powers of entry do officers have in conducting on­site wastewater management system inspections?

Clare Moran:  Appendix 7 in the toolkit lists, in detail, the powers of entry of an authorised officer. These are fairly standards powers of entry and, when certain conditions are met, they allow entry to residential premises.

Will Mosley:  Question 5: when council officers have great ideas about how to make the application of a wonderful new piece of legislation faster and smoother in order to improve air, water and land quality, in what ways can the EPA assist to make this happen, when resources, such as finance, research and expertise, are stretched?

Clare Moran:  This question sounds like something that we could channel through the MOU that we are developing with MAV. I think both the EPA and MAV would be willing to hear these ideas, provided that they were within the scope of the MOU, which is the EPA, the MAV and local government supporting each other in our joint regulatory roles.

Will Mosley:  Thanks, Clare. So we are done with the pre-loaded questions. One question coming out from the chat is: can you please clearly explain how the GED is supposed to work for homeowners with split septic systems, in terms of their discharging into the environment?

Clare Moran:  Thanks, Will. I hope that the presentation has gone some way to answering this question. The GED requires that the person managing or in control of a system, including an older system, take all reasonably practicable steps to make sure that the system does not pose a risk to human health or the environment. The key tools are the improvement notice and the prohibition notice. Part C of the toolkit, under the general environmental duty, explains in detail how councils can regulate the risks and impacts of systems.

Will Mosley:  Thanks very much, Clare. I believe that completes all of the questions that we have so far. Do you have one that I don't have?

Clare Moran:  I have one, yes.

Will Mosley:  Yes, I can see more questions now. The first question is: is there a legislative requirement for an owner or operator of a system to submit regular maintenance reports to council?

Clare Moran:  Thank you, experts, for helping to answer these. There is a new requirement for landowners to keep maintenance records for five years; for example, these might be pumping-out records. If council requests to see such a record, the landowners will be required to make it available for inspection.

Will Mosley:  One more question: are on­site wastewater management systems without a permit still able to be used under the new regime?

Clare Moran:  The short answer is yes. Old systems that were not subject to a permit when they were installed can still be used under the new environment protection framework. Thank you so much, everyone, for all those questions. We will assume that we have been able to answer quite a few of them through the presentation. We will now conclude this section about on­site wastewater management systems and move on to my colleague Will Mosley, who will talk about regulating residential noise.

Will Mosley:  It's time for our second session of the morning, which will be regulating residential noise under the new act, the Environment Protection Act 2017. As Clare has said previously, my name is Will Mosley. I am an OPLE. I worked previously at Casey City Council and am working currently at Whittlesea City Council. In my past four years in this role, I have had extensive experience working with environmental health officers, planning enforcement officers and other council officers to regulate, assess and resolve residential noise complaints. In terms of today's session on residential noise, there are three key take-aways. The first is that, like septic systems, the scope of the council's role as a regulator has not really changed all that much; however, the laws and powers that you will apply when regulating residential noise have changed slightly. Lastly, the EPA is working to produce, and has already produced, a wealth of materials to help local government in being ready to regulate residential noise by 1 July.
What has actually changed? The EPA's main change with the 2017 act is that it is gearing towards a preventative approach. In the past, under the 1970 act, we had a responsive approach to pollution and waste. Now we want to make sure that all Victorians are obligated to work to reduce their risk of harm before it actually happens. This is mainly encapsulated in the general environmental duty. For those of you who are interested in the general environmental duty in more detail, there will be a webinar on 26 May, which will include a deep dive into the duty, and I encourage you to go ahead and sign up for that. Also changed is the definition of 'unreasonable noise'. Firstly, under the 1970 act, the definition of 'unreasonable noise' was somewhat ambiguous, and we've worked hard to make sure that, under the new act, it is clear and has qualitative characteristics that can be measured objectively by council officers; secondly, in the new act, related offences, such as 'emitting unreasonable noise' and infringement offences, have also changed; thirdly, in the new act, we have a great new tool, which is the residential noise improvement notice, and we expect that this will bridge the gap left previously in past legislation and be excellent in helping council officers to get to the root cause in resolving residential noise issues; and, lastly, under the new legislation, the way in which residential construction noise is treated has changed significantly, and you will now be using delegations from the EPA to council to investigate and regulate noise from residential construction, which we can talk a little more about later on.
Like septics and litter, the EPA has worked hard to produce a local government toolkit related to regulating residential noise. We expect this toolkit to be your go-to resource—your Bible, if you will—when you are out in the field or planning to conduct an investigation into a residential noise complaint. The toolkit will have information on powers and enforcement tools available to you; penalty structures; some strategies and enforcement action to reduce harm; methodology for assessing unreasonable noise; and some case studies where the above have been applied in real life. You can see a link to the toolkit here. The toolkit was published formally, officially, yesterday and is available on the EPA's website. The toolkit has undergone extensive development, beginning when the draft environment protection regulations were released for comment in September 2019. Council provided significant feedback on those regulations, which the EPA then incorporated into the final version. The toolkit was then born of those regulations, and the draft version was submitted to 10 councils for further feedback. All of this has gone into making this toolkit your go-to resource, and we believe that it will answer all questions that you have come 1 July and make you ready to regulate noise. 
Additional to the toolkit will be other guidelines that provide more detail on specific topics; the first to come will be assessing noise from residential equipment. Those of you who are familiar with publication 1254, otherwise known as the noise control guidelines, will be familiar with section 1 of this new guideline, which has been redrafted. This time, the focus will be on the use of noise characteristics as a determining factor when thinking about compliance: is it too loud, when does it happen and what impact is it having on the complainant? It will be characteristics like those. However, these toolkits will still have advice on how to undertake measurements using handheld meters and the like.
As I mentioned previously, in terms of the local government's role in regulating residential noise, not much has changed. Local government is still responsible primarily for regulating residential noise from residential premises, as well as noise from construction and demolition of residential premises. The EPA is still responsible primarily for regulating industrial, commercial and trade premises noise, as well as entertainment venues. The Victoria Police sit between the two, assisting local government in regulating residential premises noise and assisting the EPA in regulating entertainment venue noise.
Here we have an overview of the sections of the new act that relate to unreasonable noise. Sitting above all is the general environmental duty, which applies to all Victorians engaging in any activity that may give rise to risk of harm to human health and the environment. As I said earlier, there will be a webinar on the GED that will provide detail, so go ahead and please sign up for that. Under the GED, you have specific sections relating to unreasonable noise and offences. Primarily, for residential noise, it is section 167. You then have a whole suite of powers and enforcement tools that council officers and Victoria Police can make use of in taking action against unreasonable noise from residential premises. We also have, as in the past, the regulations which support the act. In the regulations, you will find schedules that list prescribed items and prohibited times for those items.
I will give a little more about the act in detail. Part 7.6 relates primarily to unreasonable noise. In part 7.6, you will find section 167, as I mentioned before, which creates the offence of permitting or causing unreasonable noise to be emitted from a residential premise. Section 171 also relates to the appointment of residential noise enforcement officers, or what we will be calling RNEOs. Section 170 empowers RNEOs to take proceedings for offences against unreasonable noise. Further down in the act, you will find section 307, which relates to how council officers may issue infringement notices for offences of unreasonable noise.
Like in the past, the act gives the power to councils and Victoria Police to appoint residential noise enforcement officers or RNEOs. Those of you who are currently authorised under the old act will be familiar with section 48A(1), and your powers will be similar in function and appointment to the old section. It should be noted that, under section 48A(1), there is the transition provision whereby all those who are authorised already will have no need to be reappointed and, instead, will be appointed automatically when the new act comes in.
I will talk in a little more detail about unreasonable noise' The concept of 'unreasonable noise' has changed. Under the 1970 act, it was ambiguous, and it was often difficult for council officers to know how to make a decision about what was and was not 'unreasonable'. This time around, the definition of 'unreasonable noise' in section 3 of the act is detailed. For those of you familiar with the Public Health and Wellbeing Act, this will look familiar, but the characteristics of unreasonable noise have been well explained and are further backed up in the toolkit. This time, we are thinking about things like volume, intensity, duration, when it is emitted and its impact on the complainant or the reporter, as well as prescribed factors. The definition of 'unreasonable noise' in the new act means that noise can be considered unreasonable based on any one of those factors or a combination of those factors, and that it does not need to meet all of those factors at once in order to be considered unreasonable. You still have the old pathway whereby noise is emitted from an item that is prescribed in the regulations, and it is emitted during a time that is prohibited in the regulations for that prescribed item. Also, if it is heard in a habitable room of a complainant's residence, you would consider it to be unreasonable. We still have that pathway, but we want to make it clear that any noise emitted from residential premises, whether or not from a prescribed item, can still be considered unreasonable, if it meets the other characteristics in the definition of 'unreasonable noise'.
Fear not though; the toolkit will be your best friend. You might not be able to see it here in any great detail, but the toolkit provides a decision tree that will assist council officers in making a decision about whether or not noise is unreasonable. It should give you the confidence that you may have lacked in the past about making such decisions. So, as soon as you can, grab a copy of the toolkit and have a look.
The EPA's preferred approach to regulating unreasonable noise and all pollution and waste matters is shown here in this slide. We choose a graduated approach, starting with guidance and support, only escalating to things like court injunctions or prosecution as a last resort. We would hope that the council follow a similar tactic, when regulating unreasonable noise from residential premises and construction noise. However, we know that, under the 1970 act, there was a bit of a gap in how you would escalate up this pyramid. You had the 72­hour noise direction and not much else, before escalating up to the prosecution stage. This time around, we have the residential noise improvement notice. You can see it there, smack dab in the middle of the pyramid. We believe that this will be an incredibly useful tool for you. By serving a residential noise improvement notice, when you find an offence of unreasonable noise occurring, you will be able to set the standards for the resident emitting the noise and require that resident to do certain things or undertake certain action. If they comply with the residential noise improvement notice, great; you have solved the issue. But, if they do not, you are going to have a clear basis on which to escalate further up the chain of compliance enforcement and eventually to prosecution, should you need to. We want to confirm today that councils will receive revenue from penalties associated with unreasonable noise from the following offences: unreasonable noise from residential premises; non-compliance with a residential noise improvement notice; and non-compliance with an 'unreasonable noise' direction.
I will talk a little now about residential construction noise. Under the new act, noise from residential construction or demolition will not be treated in the same way as unreasonable noise from residential premises. However, councils will still retain the power to act against noise from residential construction through a delegation of powers from the EPA. The EPA will delegate the power to appoint officers, under certain sections of the Environment Protection Act, which will give them certain powers. These officers will be different from residential noise enforcement officers and will have different powers of entry, but the primary power will be the ability to investigate offences against the GED, or unreasonable noise more broadly, in section 166. As I have mentioned, you will have specific powers of entry when authorised under this part of the act; and you will have the power to issue improvement notices and prohibition notices, when you find offences occurring. The powers of council officers authorised under this part of the act are further explained in the toolkit. I want to make it clear that, when there is non-compliance with improvement notices or prohibition notices, as council officers, you will not have the power to take proceedings in connection with these offences directly; you will need to work with the EPA. The EPA is working currently to streamline that process to enable it to work effectively between both agencies.
Lastly, I just want to mention that the EPA is working to make things a little bit easier for you guys in terms of the notices. We have prepared and will be delivering templates for the following: the residential noise improvement notice; the improvement notice and the prohibition notice, which is served when offences against the GED occur; and templates for the amended versions of the above notices. That's it for the presentation. Now we are just going to move to questions again, starting with pre-loaded questions that have already been sent through to us. I have Tim Rose here with me.

Tim Rose:  Good morning, everyone.

Will Mosley:  He is an expert in everything 'noise'.

Tim Rose:  I'm not quite sure about that, Will, but we'll give it our best shot.

Will Mosley:  Tim will be answering questions for us today. The first pre-loaded question is: what guidance will be available to councils?

Tim Rose:  Thanks, Will. As you've clearly noted through your presentation this morning—we think it is worth just fleshing it out a bit further—obviously, the toolkit will be, as you've noted, a really great resource for councils involved in dealing with noise issues in their municipalities. We really hope that this document becomes the go-to guide for deciphering and unpacking the framework under the EPA Act 2017, in relation to noise and the offences and compliance processes associated with that and, obviously, the change in relation to construction and demolition noise. It provides practical tips and advice for council officers on how they can investigate noise complaints, using the risk-based compliance framework of the act. In particular, it provides case studies that highlight the impacts of unreasonable noise, so we do hope that will be useful.
I also just want to flesh out a little more about the 'assessing noise from residential equipment' guide. Many council officers will be very familiar with using our noise control guideline document, which has been around for a number of years now. We have decided to try to make it a bit more user-friendly by breaking it up over time into smaller packaged pieces of information and material. The first one that we've chosen to do, to line up with the release of the regulations, is assessing noise from residential equipment. We know that assessing noise from residential equipment, like air conditioners, can often be somewhat complex, and we know that information is useful to councils. As you have pointed out, Will, the focus of the entire regulatory scheme is really about dealing with potential impacts before they occur, very much looking at what the characteristics of unreasonable noise are, and using that within the compliance and enforcement approach. So that is what the fact sheet goes into, and it will be released soon. For those councils seeking to use a more quantitative approach to assessing noise, it maintains the existing measurement criteria for residential equipment, which we already use in the noise control guideline; that will still be there as an option, stepping out how that is used.

Will Mosley:  What advice is available about the use of residential noise provisions of the EPA Act 2017 versus the nuisance provisions found in the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008?

Tim Rose:  Thanks, Will. We know that councils are very familiar with using the Public Health and Wellbeing Act to deal with noise issues, and they use the nuisance provisions within the act. Potentially, in many respects over time, perhaps they have preferred to use that act as a compliance tool rather than using the EP Act. We want to continue to stress that both acts obviously continue to be completely reasonable and separate pathways to use for dealing with local community noise. One act does not override the other. Really, the new act, regulations and associated guidance that we have put together seek to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of our framework, particularly in dealing with sources of noise that are not clearly outlined in the regulations and, in particular, those where scenarios occur during the day, which are often a bit complex to deal with. But, again, the regulations remain largely the same, and they continue to provide a simple framework for dealing with a significant number of the sources of noise that cause nuisance in a residential setting. On the issue of whether using the EP Act and regulations to resolve residential noise issues meets the duty to investigate, under the Public Health and Wellbeing Act, councils will probably need to consider their own advice on that. But both compliance pathways ultimately are about investigating and resolving residential noise issues.

Will Mosley:  Thanks, Tim; that's insightful. Question 3 of the pre-loaded questions asks: is there any provision around commercial construction sites?

Tim Rose:  Yes, that's a good question. Thanks, Will, and thanks to those who are interested in knowing a bit more about this. What is important to understand and remember is that the provisions for construction noise are the same as those for residential and commercial sites. The proposed delegation relates purely to residential construction noise. The new GED framework is, we believe, best placed to deal with these sorts of sources of noise in terms of construction. Really, precisely why we have restructured the definition of 'residential premises' in the EP Act 2017 is to allow the use of a modern and flexible non-source-specific regulatory tool, such as the GED, which focuses on preventing noise impacts before they occur.

Will Mosley:  Thanks, Tim. Question 4: councils say that they need, and are requesting, more clarity about what constitutes noise from residential construction sites. Is it sites that are under construction, in accordance with a building permit, or could it be properties that are undertaking a renovation or upgrade?
Tim Rose:  Thank you. We've dealt specifically with that issue in the new toolkit, and we've provided a clear delineation between what is considered to be, I guess, renovation, and what is considered to be full demolition and construction of a new premises. Hopefully, that advice will be relatively clear and concise.
Will Mosley:  Yes, go ahead and grab the toolkit as soon as you can. Question 5: if councils choose not to opt in to the new act and the new method of regulating residential noise, can the EPA refer the public to, and direct them to check, the relevant municipal laws?

Tim Rose:  Certainly, the EPA will continue to refer residential noise pollution reports to local government, as they do now; so that situation won't change, irrespective of whether councils opt in to the delegation.

Will Mosley:  Thanks, Tim. A number of questions have come in from the chat during the presentation, so we will try to get through as many of them as we possibly can in the time that we have left. The first question is: are the guidelines linked to any enforceable legislation? The guidelines are very difficult to enforce, without links back to the act or enforceable legislation. Relying on other acts—that is, the Public Health and Wellbeing Act—is not appropriate, as they have different requirements for proof.

Tim Rose:  Absolutely. In effect, the guidance links back to our framework. At the end of the day, the guidance that we have written supports the application of the EP Act and the regulations, in relation to residential construction noise, and the options for compliance and enforcement under that legislation. In itself, the guidance does not have any particular status, other than what we refer to as a state-of-knowledge document, in general, under the act.

Will Mosley:  Thank you, Tim. Question: will this apply only to residential premises, or can it be applied to commercial uses within a residential area or zone, such as a hotel? I'm not sure what they're talking about in this question; they may be talking about construction noise.

Tim Rose:  Maybe the best way to answer that question would just be to say that, again, the very deliberate changes that we have made to the definition of 'unreasonable noise' have been to harmonise the way in which we deal with construction noise, whether it comes from residential premises or a commercial-size premises. In this instance, the delegation specifically relates to residential premises, and who knows what the future holds in terms of how that might be managed going forward. But, indeed, the act and the way in which the noise framework has been structured certainly seeks to be somewhat blind to the magnitude, if you like, or type of location from which those sources of noise might be emitted. It is about what those sources are and how they are being managed.
Will Mosley:  Thanks, Tim. Again on this question: if the source of noise is commercial in a residential area, could you use the residential noise sections or provisions of the act to regulate it?

Tim Rose:  I would probably have to take that one on notice; I'm not a hundred per cent sure. Ultimately, if it is residential premises, as defined by the definition, that is how it would apply. But I'm happy to consider, on notice, the other options or considerations.

Will Mosley:  Some comments in the back end say that, if it were, say, a hotel or motel that was causing noise in a residential area, that would be considered to be commercial noise.

Tim Rose:  Yes, it would.

Will Mosley:  We have more questions coming in. This question is: there has been no mention of noise that is emitted from farming zones. How would these noises be regulated; are they residential, commercial or industrial?

Tim Rose:  Effectively, noise from a farming zone in regional Victoria is captured by the transition of 'noise from industry'. If we are talking about residential premises on a farming property, obviously it comes in under these provisions. But, if we are talking about the farming activity itself, it comes in under commercial, industrial and trade noise and is dealt with in other sections of the act.

Will Mosley:  Thanks, Tim. One question coming in is: I am concerned about the introduction of the word 'annoyance' in the act; can further clarity be provided regarding what is considered to be an annoyance?

Tim Rose:  Effectively, the characteristics of the definition of 'unreasonable noise' are what has set, if you like, the framing for the consideration of the source of noise that you are dealing with. The toolkit goes into some detail about the ways in which those characteristics can be defined, so I'd certainly encourage everyone to have a look at the toolkit and consider 'annoyance' within such contexts.

Will Mosley:  Thank you very much, Tim. We have some further information coming in.

Tim Rose:  This is almost the live-streaming of questions. I was a little concerned, though, because I did not actually think 'annoyance' was in the act; I'm not actually sure that it is, but we can double-check that later.

Will Mosley:  Thanks very much, Tim. I think we will move on, as that was the last of the questions that we had coming in from the live stream. Now I will pass over to Clare Moran, who will introduce our next speaker.

Clare Moran:  Thank you, Will, and thank you, Tim. There were lots of questions there, and it is great to see lots of interest. Now I will hand over to my colleague Clare Dawson. She is going to take us through the third part of our webinar are today, which is about regulating litter and other waste. Thanks, Clare.

Clare Dawson:  Hello. My name is Clare Dawson. I work in the EPA's transformation program, preparing for the new Environment Protection Act. I would like to thank you for joining us today; it's really great that we've got such great numbers. I have been in contact with quite a number of you over the last 18 months, during the development of the three toolkits that we are talking about today. I would like to thank particularly those people in council who have provided feedback to us during that period. That feedback has been incredibly helpful for making those publications better and, hopefully, those publication will be really good tools for you in your jobs.
I will be talking today about regulating litter and other waste, under the new act and regulations. These new laws replace the current litter provisions in the 1970 act, which many of you will be quite familiar with. The key things that you need to know—this area is similar to the others that we have been discussing—are that the council's role, as a regulator of litter and other waste, has not really changed; and the role and definition of 'litter authorities' and 'litter enforcement officers' remain similar. The EPA, councils and other public entities, notably Parks Victoria, are all litter authorities that can employ staff as litter enforcement officers. But the laws and powers have changed a little bit, and we will go through those today. Also, of course, there are new materials and resources to help you regulate from 1 July. The key things that have changed in the litter and illegal dumping space are that there are greater penalties for dangerous litter and larger volumes of dumped waste, and there are clearer powers and better enforcement tools for litter authorities and litter enforcement officers. The aim of the new framework is to discourage littering and illegal dumping, protect people and the environment from harm and support liveable communities; these resources will help you in your role in this.
The key resource, of course, is the toolkit, regulating litter and other waste. This is guidance for councils and other litter authorities on how to apply the new litter and other waste laws. It goes through prevention strategies and enforcement action, and how they work together to reduce littering and illegal dumping; it includes case studies from councils and our officers for the protection of the local environment; and it updates and modernises the existing litter enforcement toolkit. Many of you will be familiar with this publication, which is on the EPA website; it has been there since 2014, so this is an update. Also, of course, the new laws covered by the toolkit apply from 1 July.
Development of the toolkit has been about an 18­month process. The EPA worked with a number of council officers who volunteered to help through the Litter Enforcement Officer Network, which is coordinated by Keep Victoria Beautiful. Through that network, a number of council officers assisted us. We conducted a workshop back in January 2020, and those council officers shared with us what they liked about the current toolkit, what they would like to see improved and what they wanted to see in the new publication. Through the drafting of that publication, we got a lot of feedback from that group, which was great, and it was published back in December last year.
We will now get into talking about the new laws. There are a number of topics in the waste chapter of the new Environmental Protection Act. The key one that litter authorities can enforce is part 6.3, and that is litter and other waste. This graphic here shows how part 6.4, specifically, is implemented by litter authorities, including the EPA, councils and other litter authorities, such as Parks Victoria. The EPA does this by providing a public reporting-litter hotline, an app, where members of the public can report litter deposited from vehicles. The EPA also investigates illegal dumping of industrial, hazardous and large quantities of waste, and it investigates suspected repeat or organised illegal dumping issues. The EPA can use part 6.4 of the act, which we have been talking about, and it also has additional powers, under the industrial waste laws. Councils and other litter authorities also have the same powers under part 6.4, and they can investigate and take action regarding litter offences and also larger scale illegal dumping. Litter and illegal dumping, as you know, is a big problem in our community, and a combined regulatory effort of the EPA, councils and other litter authorities is essential to tackling it.
I will just bring this definition up. Here we have the new definition of 'waste' under the new Environment Protection Act. It is a pretty general and broad definition, and you can read it, of course, in the act and also in the toolkit. We see a change regarding the definition of 'litter'. Litter fits into the act's broad definition of 'waste', but it is now a volume-based definition and it means waste of less than 50 litres in volume. Here we go; these are some graphics to show you what that might roughly look like, as a point of reference. The main offences, under part 6.3 of the act, are for the unlawful deposit of waste. The deposit of waste occurs when a person parts with possession of litter or other waste; this can include the burning of waste and where waste blows, falls or escapes from a premises or place. As for the offences, section 115 is the key there. The offences are broken up by volume of waste and, in the case of dangerous litter, by type of waste. Here we have highlighted the four different key offences for 'litter' and 'dangerous litter': 50 to 1,000 litres of unlawfully deposited waste and more than 1,000 litres. These are all infringement offences, which can also be prosecuted in the Magistrates Court. Now that we've got these volume-based offences, estimating the volume of waste in an illegal deposit will be key to investigating. To work out which offence may apply, LEOs will need to investigate the volume of waste or the total volume of a connected series of deposits, which the act also allows for, and a number of resources in the toolkit will help you to do that. In some instances, with smaller volumes of litter—say, a couple of items—it is going to be pretty obvious that it is less than 50 litres. But, where you have waste that could be around those threshold amounts, tipping over 50 or just under or over 1,000, accurate measurements will be required. As I have said, the toolkit has a number of great resources around measuring and making calculations, so please have a look at it.
We will go and have a look at the penalties associated with each of the offences under section 115. For 'littering' of less than 50 litres, there are large penalties in there now. The court offences and infringement offences are divided up: for an individual, you can see that the infringement amount is two penalty units; and, for a body corporate or company, the amount is 10 penalty units so. That is how they are shown there. Also, a person must not deposit dangerous litter, and that is a higher offence. We will just look at what 'dangerous litter' actually is. 'Dangerous litter' means litter, again, less than 50 litres, that is 'wholly or partly comprised of one of the following'. This is the definition from the act. You can see pictures here of glass, syringes, cigarettes, solvents, paints and those kinds of things. In addition to these waste items, it is any substance, material or thing prescribed by the regulations. As for how that works, under the new environment protection regulations, priority wastes are listed in schedule 5 of the regulations. Generally, the EPA regulates priority wastes. But, where they are unlawfully deposited in volumes of less than 50 litres and from an industrial source, they are considered to be 'dangerous litter', and litter authorities, including councils, can take enforcement action. This is now one of the larger offences: 50 to 1,000 litres. As you can see, we now have these larger and more proportionate penalties associated with these offences. That is what it might look like in terms of volume: a few wheelie bins. Here we have more wheelie bins—here we go—with more than 1,000 litres, which is the largest offence. You can see much greater penalties there and infringement of up to $8,000 for a body corporate or company.
Many of you here today are appointed currently as litter enforcement officers. That appointment will roll over or transition automatically under the new Environment Protection Act. If you are currently appointed as a litter enforcement officer, you do not need to be reappointed. It is only new officers after 1 July who will need to be appointed specifically under the new Environment Protection Act. The powers of litter enforcement officers are fairly similar to what they have been. Officers can be appointed by litter authorities; so councils, of course, can appoint staff as litter enforcement officers, be that in your local laws area or other areas. Such officers have powers under the act to enforce the litter and other waste laws. Litter enforcement officers include EPA-authorised officers and police. In terms of jurisdiction, the EPA and the police have state-wide powers to take action under part 6.4. Council LEOs can act within their municipal area; and LEOs from other litter authorities, like Parks Victoria, can act in relation to lands under the management or control of the agency. You will see that, for councils, that is a change in the definition, and it should give you more clarity as to your jurisdiction around litter and waste.
The powers, again, are not dissimilar to the current powers. There are powers of entry to non-residential premises. A LEO can ask for a person's name and address, in relation to a litter offence, and they can request that a person remove waste. There are two new notices: the waste information gathering notice, and the waste abatement notice; I will talk a little about those in a moment. There are infringements associated with unlawful deposit of waste, which I have already mentioned, and there are also infringements associated with non-compliance for those other things, like requesting a person to remove waste and non-compliance with the notices. The waste information gathering notice can be used by a litter enforcement officer to obtain information about waste that they believe has been unlawfully deposited. It allows a LEO to collect evidence that may be used to take enforcement action; and, as I said, it is an offence not to comply with this notice. It is similar to the 45ZI, which you would be familiar with currently, if you work in this area. Then we have the waste abatement notice. This is similar to the litter abatement notice but, of course, it can be used across all different types of waste. It can be used to manage waste, or material that may become waste, and to ensure that it is deposited in a lawful way. It can require a person who deposited the waste to clean up and restore a place that has been impacted by waste, to lawfully dispose of the waste or to change their activities to better manage the waste. It can also require the occupier of a premises to clean up or dispose of the waste, in a situation where the responsible person cannot be located. As in the other presentations, I am showing you here the EPA's escalating approach, which we recommend, to taking enforcement action. You can see those compliance and enforcement tools there—the notices, infringements and so forth—but 'education and prevention' is always the best starting point.
In addition to the Environment Protection Act, the environment protection regulations, which will shortly be made, add some additional offences in the litter and waste space. Some of these offences will be quite familiar to you. Largely, they have been carried over from the current Environment Protection Act; however, instead of being in the act, they are now in the regulations. They include defacing, setting fire or damaging a bin, depositing or affixing unsolicited documents, and commissioning and engaging in distribution of unsolicited documents. As with the act, litter enforcement officers and litter authorities can take action in relation to these offences, under the regulations. Just as we have notice templates for residential noise and septics, we also have them for you to use for litter and waste: the waste information gathering notice and the waste abatement notice. I have here, if you can see it, the front cover of the waste information gathering notice; it has a few additional pages. In the top right-hand corner, there is a place where councils can tailor these notices by adding their own logos, contact details and so forth. These are very similar in substance and in look to the waste information gathering notice and waste abatement notice that the EPA will also be using after 1 July. Penalties for offences are retained by council, under part 6.3 of the act.
I am going to talk now about the EPA's Waste Crime Prevention directorate, which is a new directorate. This team has asked me to convey a bit of information about who they are, what they do and how you can work with them. The new Waste Crime Prevention directorate was created to reduce risk of harm to the environment and the community through effective prevention, detection and enforcement against waste crimes. It has three units: a compliance and enforcement unit, which has a number of multidisciplinary teams; a waste crime programs unit, which has strategic programs around prevention, surveillance, intelligence, planning and projects; and a chemical waste and recyclable materials compliance and enforcement unit, which is focused on regulating businesses whose operations may pose a fire risk, and generally these will be larger businesses that may have a council planning permit and will probably have an EPA permission under the new act.
As for how you can work with this team or directorate, please report information to the EPA about: multiple dumpings of industrial waste or things like asbestos-contaminated material and, also, where that dumping may be happening between local government areas; evidence of stockpiling of waste on properties, which might be with or without a council permit; skip-bin waste management or chemical storage operations, which may have a waste-crime element that may have come to your attention; known operators with a history of waste-crime dumping that are known to your council; and any other information that you have around waste crime that you think would be relevant to the EPA. Members of this team have put their names down there. You can contact them, if you wish to report anything or talk through any incidents. You could also contact your EPA regional office or your OPLE, if your council is lucky enough to have one.
As for resources, the litter and waste toolkit is available, and hopefully a lot of you have had a chance to read. There is our local government bulletin, which the other presenters have mentioned. Also, there is a link here to the EPA's public reporting hotline, where you can report litter from vehicles; and a link to the website of the litter enforcement officer network, or LEON, which will be running some training on the new act, so you can go to the website for information there.
That's the end of this presentation. We have some questions and, while I am loading those up, I will introduce my co-host, Dru Marsh. Dru is a regulatory specialist and will be assisting us to answer your questions around litter and waste. Some of you have probably seen or heard from him in the past or recently around the new act. Five questions were pre-loaded. The first I will address just quickly. The question is: with councils that have OPLEs, will the OPLEs receive the same delegations as council officers, particularly in relation to litter and waste? OPLEs were appointed by the EPA's authorised officers and, therefore, as authorised officers, all automatically have the same powers of litter enforcement officers. So they don't need any additional appointment, as they have the same powers there. Then I have this question: has there been a material change to the 45ZI process? I will pass that question to Dru.

Dru Marsh:  Thanks for that question, Clare. The short answer is no, there's no real material change; it is really an update or transfer of the existing power. What is different though is the infringement that is associated with non-compliance; it is a higher infringement. Essentially, we are saying there that it is a serious issue, if you don't answer the notice as set out. So it is placing greater importance on those who receive the notice to participate in the important investigation processes that you need to fulfil in order to administer your part of the act.

Clare Dawson:  Thanks, Dru. The third question is: when will the templates for the notices be available? As with the other templates that we have been talking about for residential noise and septics, we are going to send them directly to councils within the next couple of weeks. They are all done and ready to go. We were just waiting for the toolkits to be published to support them so that you have some context for their use, and they will all be made available directly. The next question is: are there any changes to infringements for larger amounts of litter?

Dru Marsh:  Absolutely. This is a material change, and it really recognises the overlap that arises between the responsibilities of councils and other organisations for addressing waste crime, litter, larger levels of dumping and the EPA's ongoing role with coverage over the state of Victoria. What these offences really do is try to recognise that litter infringement under the current act doesn't really adequately address some of the larger scale dumping that occurs across Victoria. So these new classes of infringement, which are volume based, are really there to give councils and other organisations, which have powers under new act, the ability to better tackle those crimes in a proportionate way. What this means is that, while there will still be an ongoing need for you to interact with the EPA, particularly where it concerns industrial waste or there are more systemic problems, for some of the larger volume dumping that occurs routinely in your areas, there are penalties that are much more proportionate to the scale and impact of those offences.

Clare Dawson:  Thank you very much. The final question that was submitted prior to the session is: will litter abatement notices still be used?

Dru Marsh:  The short answer is yes, but not by that name. The waste abatement notice is the successor, if you like, but it really covers a lot of the same grounds. It applies to someone who has deposited the waste unlawfully. The scope of what you can do with that is, of course, to require that the waste be cleaned up and sent somewhere that can lawfully receive that type of waste. It also allows you to direct someone to restore the impacted area, which can be quite important where there's an amenity value that has been harmed by the dumping of that waste. Then perhaps even more important, and more in keeping with what the new act is really focused on, is an ability to issue directions around modifying the behaviours and activities that actually caused the waste to be dumped or deposited. That really gives officers an opportunity to take on a preventative approach. Particularly with routine issues that you see time and time again, the notice will actually allow you to break that cycle in a way that can be compelled under the notice.

Clare Dawson:  Thanks, Dru. That ends the questions that we received previously. We have had a few come through, so thank you. I think a couple have been answered already in the chat. We have just covered one of those questions, which is: what is the time frame around the new template? We just had a chat about that. This is another question: what about when litter originates from a business activity? For example, where landowners prohibit smoking on their land, which causes cigarette-butt litter on public land, or request donations of clothing that are placed on public land rather than in a bin, can councils fine those landowners?

Dru Marsh:  The short answer is probably. It comes down to the offences that are set out in section 115. Provided that the elements of the offence can be identified—such as the deposit of litter, which is defined as being waste, of less than 50 litres—there will be scope for you to be able to issue those infringements. It would be the same with cigarette butts. Judging by how the question has been framed, it sounds as though it would be within the scope of your powers. There is perhaps an additional element to that kind of hazardous behaviour where you may also want to inform the EPA, if you feel that there is a risk of harm associated with it. So it is probably important to note that, while some of the challenges that you face are better addressed by the new infringements—particularly those that are volume-based—there may still be cause for you to raise concerns with the EPA, particularly if you see systemic problems that relate to creating a risk of harm. That is because, of course, the general environmental duty is a concurrent obligation on businesses and will require them to eliminate risks of harm through their activities. The clothing bins, I think, are a bit of a perennial issue. Provided that you are able to satisfy the volume-based aspect of the bins, I think infringements will be available there. Of course, given the nature of that context, you might want to have a conversation with those operating the bins as well because they obviously fulfil an important service; so there's a bit of a balancing act as to how you exercise your discretion. But we recognise it as 'dumping' or 'unlawful deposit', and there are probably steps that organisations responsible for those bins can take to reduce that risk. However, using infringements may be appropriate, particularly where you can obtain evidence of the commission of those offences. So it is not outside of the scope. I think, from an evidence point of view, there may be challenges in sustaining an infringement there; hence why solving the problem through consultation may be an additional approach to that issue.

Clare Dawson:  Thank you. We've got a question around what might be considered to be 'dangerous litter'. What about dumped car gas-tanks; is that considered to be dangerous litter?

Dru Marsh:  Dangerous litter has two components. A set of explicit categories of dangerous litter is set out in the act. As for the way that question has been placed, if the car gas-tank contains residue, it may be regarded as fitting within the definition in the act. But, in this particular instance, I would also recommend that you look at schedule 5, because priority wastes are also incorporated in the regulations through 'dangerous litter'. It may well be that a container in which there is flammable residue may also be regarded as 'dangerous litter' within that definition. I think there is probably a question here around the most efficient way of addressing the problem, and it may be more technically challenging to pursue that. It is a higher penalty; I think it is a bit over double the standard section-115 offence. It will be up to you to decide what you think is the most appropriate. But, if there is residue in the tank, I think there is probably a good starting point for characterising it as 'dangerous litter'.
Clare Dawson:  Fantastic. We have one more question, which is around cigarette butts. It is: an unlit cigarette butt is not deemed to be dangerous; why is the fine so high for something so small compared with other small items, such as a bag of dumped waste?

Dru Marsh:  The question goes to the policy choices behind this. There is a level of pragmatism, and certainly cigarette butts are identified as 'dangerous litter' on the basis of their potential for contributing to bushfire events. However, that being said, there is probably a huge variety of matters that may well have been expressed in the act and certainly can be included down the line through the prescription option under the regulations. For the time being, in this first iteration of the act and its regulations, what we have done is to translate what was an existing practice into the new approach. If, in the course of administering this act—there will likely be reviews on the regulations periodically—you feel that the approach is not proportionate or there are gaps, there is always the opportunity down the line for you to raise those with us. However, for the time being, I think the cigarette butt is regarded as having an inherent risk of harm associated with it; hence why it has been described as 'dangerous litter'.

Clare Dawson:  Thanks, Dru; that's fantastic. That concludes the questions around litter and other waste. I will hand back now to Clare Moran.

Clare Moran:  Thank you, Clare and Dru. We are running a little ahead of time, which is good, so we are going to try to keep answering some of the questions that have come through. We do have a question about questions, which is: will you answer all of the questions later on that come through on the chat? We will absolutely do our best to do that. If questions do not get answered today, we will absolutely try to follow them up. As I am sure you can imagine, a lot of questions are coming in and there may be some that we feel have been addressed in the presentation, so we really encourage you to look back over the presentation and self-surf for some of those questions and answers. I am just going to read through some responses and, if I need an expert, I might perhaps call them up to give an answer. Regarding on­site wastewater management systems, we did have a question that came through, which was: will property owners be required to renew their septic tank permit every five years; and how will that process work? The answer is no; an on­site wastewater management system permit is for the construction, installation or alteration of a system. I guess I take that as meaning that it is a point-in-time permission and it does not last over a period of time. 
I will also just go back to the question that we had about 'annoyance', with regard to noise. We had a question that was: I am concerned about the introduction of the word 'annoyance' in the act. Can further clarity be provided regarding what is considered to be 'annoyance'? The answer from our experts is that 'annoyance' is not in the act nor the regulations, and the factors of annoyance cover the factors of unreasonable noise. Here is a question about OPLEs: will there be an expansion of the number of OPLEs available to assist councils? The answer is that no new OPLEs have been announced at this stage. Another question here, which relates to on­site wastewater management systems, is: in what scenarios will councils need to transfer a permit? It will be where a change in permit holder is planned prior to the completion of the work: for example, where the property owner is the permit holder and sells the property. 
We also have a question here in relation to the delegation of powers. The question is: will the instrument of delegation apply to alpine resort management boards? The answer to that, I guess initially, is no. In terms of making the delegation, our focus is on councils, because we understand that is where the greatest need for these powers is. But we certainly would be happy and willing to reach out to alpine resort management boards, following 1 July, to look at the case for why perhaps they might need these powers. I have another question here. This question also relates to the delegation: what is the logic behind councils being unable to take further action for improvement notices and prohibition notices that are issued under general environmental duty; and is taking all of these on placing more work on the EPA and causing double-handling or time delays? Having not been involved in the writing of the act myself, I probably cannot give a super-clear answer, but I would say that there are significant new powers in the act. When the act was going through the many layers of approval, there was very close scrutiny of the powers themselves and also who would be able to access them. Also, with the referral to the EPA of this enforcement action, I guess, more work ultimately will be placed on the EPA in taking these on; and, yes, it could cause double-handling and time delays. But, as we said earlier, we are working on a referral process to try to make it as efficient as possible and also to be clear to councils about what cases we would take on. We hope that will try to address, I guess, some of those concerns. There is another question about the instrument of delegation and timing: if councils are delegated these powers in early June, that might be a problem, because council officers needing new authorisation, under the new act, will then have to wait for 30 days, with no powers, until the next council meeting. Yes, it is correct that we will have the instrument finalised in early June, and we absolutely acknowledge that is getting very close to 1 July. I guess that there are a couple of things I can offer there. One is that we have a draft of the instrument, which we are happy to make available to you now, if that would assist you in preparing for the council processes that you need to go through. I would also ask you to remember that the delegation, I guess, complements a lot of the other direct powers that councils have. So, if all the delegations are not made on 1 July, it won't necessarily be the end of the world; I think we need to allow ourselves a bit of room. There is a question about whether councils will be trained in how to write, amend or revoke notices. I am going to throw that question to Clare for an answer.

Clare Dawson:  Thanks, Clare. Regarding the notices, the toolkits do cover a fair bit of detail around how the different notices can be used for residential noise, septics, and litter and waste. If we get feedback from councils that there is not enough detail and they want more in-depth guidance on writing requirements, for example, we will look at doing that and providing it to you after 1 July. I would acknowledge that some further support might be in store in that area.
Will Mosley:  Just on the question whether there will be any further rollout of OPLEs to new councils, I cannot confirm that there will be any further rollout in the immediate future. But we are optimistic that the OPLE pilot program will be made a formal program come 1 July, which means that we have scope, maybe not in the immediate future but in the future, to expand the program eventually, based on government funding. We had a question: will council receive any extra resources to manage noise investigations? The EPA has run two years of training programs for environmental health officers, planning officers and other officers who are involved in noise investigations, and we've managed to train upwards of 20 councils. Due to the extensive effort spent on transformation in 2021, we do not have any training planned for this year, but we intend to continue this training in the future when resources become available again. In terms of OPLEs being available to assist councils, when you have an OPLE, that OPLE will be available. Please continue to watch the OPLE space and, should an additional rollout occur, submit your expressions of interest to get an OPLE.

Clare Moran:  Thanks, Will. I have two more questions, one which I am going to take as a question and the other as a comment, before we close out. We're taking this one as a comment, thank you: we need to ensure that EPA information does not give residents unrealistic expectations, given that a number of councils are looking to leave enforcement of unreasonable noise to the police. We will take that as a comment, thank you. The final question again goes back to the delegation regarding improvement notices and prohibition notices, and the council not being able to enforce them. The question is: given that council officers will be undertaking initial investigations and evidence collection, will training be provided by the EPA regarding evidence collection, the type of evidence required et cetera? I guess I'd say to that that these are the types of issues that we will need to consider in the referral process, regarding being clear to councils about what types of evidence would be required and those sorts of things. I would also ask you to please look at the toolkit and remember that there are many parts where council can enforce and can initiate prosecutions in their own right, and there is detail in there about conducting investigations on those.
Thank you all so much for your attendance and attention today. We know that we have provided you with a lot of information, so we really encourage you to take some time to digest the materials and visit EPA's website. Also, of course, you will be able to go back and listen to this recording. I would like to thank my fellow presenters, Will, Clare, Tim and Dru. Also, there is a whole back-house team making this event happen, including our experts, our coms and engagement crew and our tech team. A survey about this webinar will be coming to you very shortly, so please complete it and let us know how we have gone today. Finally, I would say to you that 1 July is really just the beginning. As much as we prepare, we know that there will be bumps in the road. But it is just the beginning, and we look forward to continuing the conversation with you and—the fun bit, really—implementing these new laws. Thank you.