Environmental Legislation Affecting Construction Sites: An Overview

This article provides an overview of the ten significant parts of environmental legislation that affect construction sites, including the Protection of the Environment Operations (Clean Air) Regulation 2021 and the Dangerous Goods (Road and Rail Transport) Regulation 2014. It also discusses the role of environmental managers in the development phase and outlines the five key steps in procedure development. The article includes references to relevant books and journals.

ENVIRONMENTAL
MANAGEMENT

Ten significant parts of environmental legislation that affect the site
The several regulations administered by Environment Protection Authority (EPA) are meant to
affect the site of the current project, which are as follows:
 The various construction work performed under this project need to complied with the
requirements of “Protection of the Environment Operations (Clean Air) Regulation
2021”. This regulation imposes obligation with respect to the prevention of emissions,
necessitates fitting of anti-pollution device in motor vehicles used at construction sites
and requires adherence to standards related to industry’s air impurity emissions.
 Protection of the Environment Operations (General) Regulation 2021 requires response
management plans in respect of pollution incident (Schuijers, L., 2022).
 With respect to transportation, it is the duty of the prime contractor to not transport
infectious substances after becoming aware of damaged packaging, leakage from
package, etc. in compliance with Dangerous Goods (Road and Rail Transport) Regulation
2014
 Several articles used in construction are meant to cause noise pollution, therefore,
Protection of the Environment Operations (Noise Control) Regulation 2017 has set limit
on the use of several articles which creates noise for adjacent residence.
 Waste water discharging to any water makes it necessary to install and modify the
equipment for the purpose of waste treatment discharge.
 Controlling and destroying of noxious weeds must be done with adherence to
Biodiversity adherence act 2016 (Andrews, N., 2021).
 Hazardous chemicals such as asbestos, lead and silica required for carrying construction
work can only be stored, transport or disposed after getting a license from department of
planning, industry, environment and safeguards.
 With regards to disposing construction waste, the standards for managing construction
waste in NSW must be complied with necessitates implementation of appropriate
procedures and processes for handling construction waste in order to minimize the risk of
harm to environment and human health. The standards has prohibited the exhuming of

waste both at former or current landfills along with increasing the penalties for asbestos
waste offence.
 Those native plants which are considered as protected plants under the National Parks
and Wildlife Act, the license is needed from NPWS for picking or removing the same
from the construction site.
 Construction works require installation of temporary structures on land and accordingly
approval from local government is necessary which in turn ensures that there is no risk to
people passing from the construction area or other residential of the area.
Providing example for each of the legal terminology
Statute: Aboriginal land grant (Jervis Bay territory) Amendments (Strengthening land and
governance provisions) Bill 2022
Legislation: The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act)
By law: Health and Safety law poster, fire or emergency response plan
Act: The Construction contract Act 2004
Ordinance: Protection of the Environment Operations (Noise Control) Regulation 2017
Regulation: Pesticides Regulation 2017
Policy: Funding Australia's health systems, such as Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits
Scheme (PBS)
Plan to Develop an Emergency Response Plan
emergency response plan- pollution incident response management plan has been
developed in order to describe about Warrick Lane response to a potential pollution incident so
that it can meet the basic and fundamental requirement of the protection of the environment. It is
essential for the site to notice is there are a risk of material harm to the environment (Liu and
et.al., 2019). The major scope and purpose of the response plan is to cover a description of
potential hazards, important steps to be taken in order to deal with additional environmental
harm and provides information of communication which is necessary in the particular event of a
pollution incident. The response plan is developed on the basis on a risk assessment of Warrick
Lane site only. The major purpose of emergency response plan is to reduce the risk of incidents

that takes place while developing site or any project. It is essential to reduce the risk of incidents
by handling and storing polluting substances very carefully.
Role of environmental manager in development phase
As we all know that pollution incident response plan plays a vital role because it
highlights the actions one should take to reduce the chances that business causes harmful
pollution from an incident at construction site. It is essential for managers to plan in such as
manner that it doesn't have to be complicated for the workers. The level of risk should influence
the details about plan and size of site. Environmental managers needs to manager everything
related to development pollution incident response plans (Du, Wang and Xu, 2020). They focus
on implementing the environmental management systems in the company in order to solve
environmental related issues and challenges, also to identify the problems. The manager needs to
take training sessions for the employees working in the firm. They are responsible to focus on
waste treatment so that it can benefit the environmental related issues. Not only this, managers
can easily investigate incidents in compliance with environmental legislation and regulations. It
the duty of manager to give details about environmental related issues such as pollution incident
in Warrick Lane. For dealing with any kind of uncertainty and issues they must keep in mind
about the steps related to procedure development related to pollution incident response plans.
In addition to this, environmental managers develops the environment related strategies,
standards, actions plans and practices to ensure sustainable development. By doing so, they can
easily maintain sustainability in the world full of competition (Liu and et.al., 2019). The another
major role of managers is to coordinates all aspects of pollution control. Not only this, managers
needs to focus on conservation, waste management to ensure compliance with legislation related
to environment. The managers need to reduce use of hazardous material which can harm the
living beings and natural environment too. The managers must address the needs of training and
development sessions among employees so that it can establish communication between them.
Proper understanding of pollution incident can be developed among staff with the help of
managers and experts knowledge (Tang and et.al., 2018). Managers must note down whether all
cement products and raw material which is required are stored onsite or not.
5 key steps in procedure development

in the first step, Warrick Lane manager needs to identify the issue which is related to
site locations of waste containers. Due to production of too much waste near the site can harm
the atmosphere. As most of the waste is toxic it can harm the health of people which can create
issues such as low performance, bad reputation and harmful for environment.
In the second step, the manager needs to list various types of material that belong to
different waste streams such as cement, soil, oils, diesel fuel, contaminated water, dust and
liquids required in the project. By this step they are able to focus on placement on the agenda
properly.
After the completion of second step in procedure development, it is necessary to
formulate policy and follow rules and regulation related to pollution incident. All the employees
must understand the importance of formulation of policy. Manager needs to provide written
instructions such as implementation, problem emergence, decision-making process. Pesticides
Regulation 2017 policy guidelines needs to be provided to employees so that they can focus on
supporting environment.
After the formulation of the policy, it is necessary to implement it after the successful
understanding of the requirements (Wang, 2021). By implementation of policy, managers can
achieve their goals and objective related to pollution incident in the context of Warrick Lane.
Once the manager implement the policy it is essential to evaluate it properly and take
feedback from the employees so that proper understanding can be achieved. By having feedback
from staff members, managers can easily make changes which can be very helpful for the project
completion.
Finally, at the end of this procedure development it is very essential for the manager to
review annually, and they can also keep monitor the progress on weekly or monthly basis as
required. For this they must use key performance indicators and metrics to know about progress
and success in the development procedure.
From the above discussion it has been noted that an effective environmental management
process at the site can be very helpful; in the reduction of wastage, prevents pollution and helps
in processing all the wastage for the betterment of society and surrounding areas.
Describe procedures implementation and time
The procedure which we have discussed above must be implemented on time. It will be
implemented via online training of employees so that they can have proper details about things

which we have covered. Implementation period refers to those period of time from the
introduction date of signing of the procedure and agreement done between parties and up to the
issuance of final acceptance of the project along with certificate related to it.
For this pollution incident response plan it is essential to implement training module on
regular basis so all the employees working at the site are aware of any kind of change that
happen during the project (Fan, Chiu and Mabon, 2022). With the help of video conferencing,
recording voice assistant and training video can help staff members to understand the procedure
implementation. In this incident response plan, all staff must be aware of the important steps
such as lesson they have learned, identification of problems, preparation, containment and
recovery options available.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Du, L., Wang, H. and Xu, H., 2020. Analysis of spatial-temporal association and factors
influencing environmental pollution incidents in China. Environmental Impact Assessment
Review. 82. p.106384.
Fan, M. F., Chiu, C. M. and Mabon, L., 2022. Environmental justice and the politics of pollution:
The case of the Formosa Ha Tinh Steel pollution incident in Vietnam. Environment and
Planning E: Nature and Space. 5(1). pp.189-206.
Liu, X. and et.al., 2019. A group decision making approach considering self-confidence
behaviors and its application in environmental pollution emergency
management. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 16(3).
p.385.
Tang, Y. and et.al., 2018. Information disclosure on hazards from industrial water pollution
incidents: Latent resistance and countermeasures in China. Sustainability. 10(5). p.1475.
Wang, P., 2021. China's air pollution policies: progress and challenges. Current Opinion in
Environmental Science & Health. 19. p.100227.
Schuijers, L., 2022. Compelled by the Court to Act on Climate Change: Bushfire Survivors for
Climate Action Incorporated v Environment Protection Authority [2021] NSWLEC
92. Journal of Environmental Law.
Andrews, N., 2021. (20-021) North Coast Environment Council v Environment Protection
Authority [2021] NSWCATAD 29. Environmental Law Reporter, 40(21-016/21-021),
pp.7-8.
Xiao, Y. and et.al., 2018. Risk assessment of upper-middle reaches of Luanhe River Basin in
sudden water pollution incidents based on control units of water function
areas. Water. 10(9). p.1268.