Report 13: 2018

Management of Crown Land Site Contamination

Inadequate oversight and poor communication between agencies delays identification and reporting of risks

DPLH has not reported contamination risks to DWER since 2012

DPLH last reported to DWER on its progress against the approved program, for identifying and reporting potentially contaminated sites, in 2012, and DWER has not followed up. Since then DWER has not had the information it needs to assess if DPLH is meeting the intent of the program and the Act for timely identification and reporting of contamination risks on UCL and UMR.

We were advised by DPLH that reporting to DWER ceased when the program was completed in 2012. However, figures from 2012 showed nearly 500 sites still required a DPLH site inspection to determine if they should be reported to DWER. Figures for March 2018 show 377 sites remain to be inspected. The program was meant to be ongoing until all potentially contaminated sites had been identified and reported to DWER.

There is no documented management decision or formal sign-off for the program by either agency, and DWER were previously unaware that DPLH considered the program complete.

DPLH carried out its initial inspections and reporting of sites under an approved program

Due to the substantial effort and time required to cover its Crown land responsibilities, DPLH started planning its program to identify and assess contaminated sites several years before the Act became law.

Around 19,000 Crown land sites were initially identified by DPLH as having a potentially contaminating land use. However, DPLH was able to reduce this number to around 5,000 by excluding sites that did not meet:

  • proximity to geographic zones or ‘buffers’ likely to warrant a higher priority for further investigation. For example, water sources and waterways, towns and recreational areas and important flora and fauna
  • agreed revised standards for likelihood of contamination.

The program submission clearly acknowledged data limitations in identifying sites for inclusion in the program. Sites that could not be spatially related at the time and did not have associated electronic records were not included.

From 2007 to 2012, DPLH well exceeded its target of 60 desktop assessments a year with 2,497 sites assessed. Thirty-eight sites were subsequently inspected by DPLH which also slightly exceeded the 6 site inspections a year planned under the program. Twenty-two of the 38 sites inspected were reported to DWER (then DEC) as potentially contaminated (Figure 1).

Figure 1 - DPLH's program

 

 

 

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