Environmental Legislation Affecting Construction Sites: An Overview

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