Reporting non-compliances for environment protection licence holders

A non-compliance occurs when a licence condition has been contravened by an individual person, company or organisation. Licence conditions are legal requirements under the POEO Act, and failing to comply with them is an offence. Licence conditions are in your environment protection licence and can also be generic conditions in a regulation made under the POEO Act.

You must report within 21 days of becoming aware of a licence condition being contravened. You should be satisfied that a non-compliance has occurred before reporting.

You must still report a pollution incident to each relevant authority immediately after becoming aware of the incident under section 148 of the POEO Act. For further information see Duty to notify pollution incidents.

Licensees are responsible for actively checking compliance with their licences and addressing any issues. Non-compliances may be identified for example through inspections, audits, monitoring results, procedural reviews, incident investigations, EPA mandatory environmental audits, or reports from employees, contractors or the community.

The EPA may also identify non-compliances with licence conditions, for example, during inspections, licence reviews, incident investigations, or compliance audits.

Licensees need to ensure that relevant people such as employees, contractors and agents working at the premises or carrying on the licensed activities have access to the licence conditions and clearly understand the conditions relevant to their responsibilities.

The following information is required:

• the date the licensee became aware of the non-compliance
• the date(s) the non-compliance occurred, including if the non-compliance is continuing
• whether the non-compliance relates to air, water/land, noise or waste matters (if applicable)
• whether the non-compliance relates to a pollution incident
• the licence condition(s) not complied with
• a summary of particulars of the non-compliance, including (if known):
  • the location where the non-compliance occurred
  • the duration of the non-compliance
  • if the non-compliance is continuing, the suspected end date of the non-compliance
• the cause or suspected cause of the non-compliance
• any action taken, or proposed to be taken, to mitigate the effects of the non-compliance; and
• any action taken, or proposed to be taken, to prevent a recurrence of the non-compliance.

1. Log in to eConnect EPA (the EPA’s online portal)
2. Select ‘Report non-compliance’.
3. Complete all required fields and submit.

Licensees are responsible for determining who can supply information to the EPA on their behalf. The portal allows multiple users to collaborate on the draft before submission.

It is an offence under the POEO Act to supply false or misleading information to the EPA. As a reminder, when reporting a non-compliance, the person submitting the information must declare (by ticking a box) that the information is true and accurate at the time of reporting.

You will receive an acknowledgement email with a report number (NCR-XXX). After submitting the report, a summary pdf will be generated which you can download or view.

The report is added to the non-compliance summary page for the licence in eConnect EPA. The following details are automatically published on the EPA’s POEO Public Register:

• the date(s) of the non-compliance
• the relevant licence condition number
• an extract of the licence condition wording; and
• the information you place into the box titled “Summary of the non-compliance".

The EPA prioritises the greatest risks to the environment and human health, so we may not respond to every reported non-compliance.

After receiving a non-compliance report, the EPA may for example:

• consider site-specific environmental risks together with other available data, including previously reported non-compliances
• request additional information
• discuss the non-compliance with the licensee during a meeting or site inspection
• take appropriate action in line with the EPA’s Regulatory Policy.

Some non-compliances may not have a direct environmental impact but can still pose indirect risks and are important to the regulatory system. All non-compliances contribute to a licensee’s compliance history and help the EPA identify emerging risks and target resources where they are most needed.

Below are some simple examples showing how different types of non-compliances may be reported. Licensees should always check their own licence conditions, respond according to their specific circumstances, and seek their own legal advice if needed.

You must also comply with the duty to notify of pollution incidents under section 148 of the POEO Act. For further information, see Duty to notify pollution incidents. If the pollution incident also relates to a non-compliance with a licence condition(s), please enter the pollution incident case report number when submitting your non-compliance report. 

1. A single non‑compliance 

A licence requires daily sampling and analysis of pollutant concentrations at a discharge point using a calibrated monitoring probe.

• During discharge, the licensee collects a sample and tests it. The results indicate an exceedance of a 100 percentile concentration limit, meaning a non-compliance has occurred.
• Testing over the following days shows the discharge complies with the limits.

Reporting the non-compliance 

• The licensee must report the non-compliance within 21 days of first becoming aware of the limit exceedance.

2. A continuing non‑compliance with the same condition

A licence requires pollutant concentrations to be monitored continuously using inline instrumentation during discharge.

• During discharge, the inline instrument fails and monitoring stops. The licensee becomes aware of the failure and attempts repairs, but a required replacement part will take approximately four weeks to arrive. Monitoring with the inline instrumentation cannot be restored until the part is replaced. 

Reporting the non-compliance 

• The licensee must report the non-‑compliance within 21 days of first becoming aware of the monitoring failure.
• The non-compliance should be reported as continuing as it has continued since the licensee became aware and is still occurring.
• The licensee should report the date the non-compliance commenced and if known the suspected end date when monitoring will resume.
• As with all non-compliances, the action taken or proposed to be taken to mitigate the effects must be reported such as the use of alternative monitoring methods.

3. More than one non-compliance with the same licence condition occurs within 21 days

A licence requires daily grab samples to be collected and analysed for pollutants during discharge. 

• The licensee collects daily samples over five days of discharge. When the laboratory report is received with results for all samples, the licensee becomes aware that concentration limits in the licence were exceeded on days 1, 2, 3, and 5.

Reporting the non-compliances

• The licensee must report these non-compliances within 21 days of receiving the laboratory report.
• One report can be submitted listing the four individual dates, or as a date range for the three consecutive days plus a single date.
• This is not reported as a continuing non-compliance because the exceedances did not occur without interruption and were not occurring at the time of reporting.

4. More than one non-compliance with different conditions from the same incident 

All licences include conditions requiring plant and equipment to be properly and efficiently maintained, and pollution of waters to be prevented.

• A pollution incident occurs when a fuel line breaks, causing fuel to enter a stormwater drain. The stormwater shut‑off valve fails to close due to a maintenance issue, and fuel discharges off‑site.
• The licensee activates their Pollution Incident Response Management Plan, responds to the incident and reports it immediately, and undertakes clean‑up.
• During the subsequent incident review, the licensee becomes aware of two non-compliances: causing water pollution and failing to maintain plant and equipment (the shut-off valve).

Reporting the non-compliances  

• The licensee must submit two non-compliance reports, one for each breached condition, within 21 days of first becoming aware of the non-compliances, which in some situations may not be the same date as the incident.
• When submitting the first report, the licensee must note that it relates to a pollution incident and include the incident case number received from Environment Line when the incident was reported.
• The second report can be created by cloning the first and updating only the condition number, if the remaining information is also applicable.