Licensee summer weather preparation

With recent storm activity across much of the state and as we enter summer today, we want to encourage licensees to make sure you’re prepared for potential extreme weather conditions.

We encourage businesses to check your incident management plans to respond to the direct and indirect impacts of these events. 

What licensees should do

We urge all licensees to consider the potential impacts of strong winds, fires, wet weather and flooding on your business.

This includes the proximity to flood affected land and the likelihood that heavy rainfall may negatively affect operations. Heavy rain and flooding events can lead to sediments, chemicals and other objects entering waterways, which may harm the environment and cause long term impacts. These events also have the potential to increase odour generation and disrupt supply chains.

In addition, heatwaves can increase the risk of potential interruptions to power supplies and fires can result in significant damage to property and infrastructure and lead to prolonged business interruptions, particularly when combined with extreme weather conditions.

Pollution Incident Response Management Plans

Review your Pollution Incident Response Management Plans to consider readiness for the increased risk of a pollution incident. We also recommend considering any potential disruptions to your business should transport routes be impacted. 

The things we suggest you consider include, but are not limited to:

• contingency measures for increased surface water and wastewater
• ensuring all sediment and erosion controls in unsealed areas or areas under construction are in good working order
• treating and removing stormwater from retention basins and tailings dams in accordance with licence conditions to maintain capacity and checking the integrity of dams
• keeping bunds empty and taking all necessary measures to prevent them from filling with stormwater
• storing chemicals above areas that are prone to inundation
• securing all loose items to prevent them from coming into contact with floodwater
• reducing on-site leachate/effluent/wastewater storage etc. and considering the capacity of effluent irrigation areas to manage under prolonged wet conditions
• for landfills, checking the adequacy of cover material for increased rainfall, and maintaining any gas collection systems

We encourage you to regularly check the Bureau of Meteorology website for specific details.

If you have any questions about this advice, please contact the EPA Environment Line on 131 555 or on [email protected]