EPA Victoria today released its Annual Compliance Plan (ACP) for 2014-15 to enable business, the community and government organisations to understand where it will push its compliance efforts for the year ahead.
EPA Director – Environmental Regulation, Elizabeth Radcliffe, said 2014-15 would see the EPA continue to work on six complex environmental areas.
“EPA will again focus on contaminated land and groundwater, illegal waste disposal, landfills, organic waste, stormwater contamination and residential encroachment on critical industries – and deliver related compliance and enforcement projects,” Ms Radcliffe said.
“These areas are not new to EPA but we have taken a more structured and integrated approach to resolving these environmental problems.
“EPA will also embed stronger risk and evidence-based prioritisation to target sites for compliance monitoring. We will collaborate across our network of co-regulators to gather intelligence and to identify other priority issues and/or sites.”
Ms Radcliffe said the Annual Compliance Plan supported EPA’s Annual Plan, which summarises its priorities and key activities for the year ahead.
“Attending all environmental problems is an ongoing challenge for environmental regulators but we remain committed to achieving our outcomes and transforming into a modern regulator,” she said.
“We will continue to regularly prioritise our list of activities and focus our available resources on the most critical issues.
“One way we will do this is by ensuring we look for emerging trends and patterns in pollution reports and address problems strategically rather than reactively.”
Ms Radcliffe said the EPA needed continued support from the community to protect Victoria’s environment.
“Remember to report pollution that you see in your community, review your operations, see where any improvements can be made and engage with your industry to make sure you and your peers stand out as good environmental citizens,” Ms Radcliffe said.