Land Theme Report
Australia State of the Environment Report 2001 (Theme Report)
Prepared by: Ann Hamblin, Bureau of Rural Sciences, Authors
Published by CSIRO on behalf of the Department of the Environment and Heritage, 2001
ISBN 0 643 06748 5
Soil and land pollution
Environmental indicators reported on in this section as originally listed and defined in Hamblin (1998):
| Environmental indicator | |
|---|---|
| L6.1 | Total immobile contaminant load on land area by catchment |
| L6.4 | Condition of environments surrounding high-radiation sites |
| L6.5 | Quality of mining operations relative to total mine sites, and regulation requirements by drainage basin |
| L6.6 | Estimated area of pesticide application by catchment |
| L6.7 | Rate of violations in residue levels (metals and organics) in harvested rural produce and foodstuffs |
| L6.11 | a | b | | Implementation of integrated pest management (IPM) and agrichemical risk reduction by rural industry |
Small, localised pollution of ecosystems has occurred from mining activities for millennia in the form of spoil heaps, slag and localised vegetation changes. The great change in the 20th century came from the massive expansion in industrial, urban and high-input agricultural activities that were reliant on advanced technologies. However, the extent of this impact, the need for regulatory controls, and the consequent high cost of cleaning up the most contaminated sites have only slowly been accepted in western countries.
Australia instituted a Commonwealth Environmental Protection Agency in 1992. The CEPA was incorporated into Environment Australia in 1995. Australia's States and Territories established separate Environmental Protection Agencies from 1970 to the 1990s (Table 33).
| State or territory agencies | Key environment Acts affecting land |
|---|---|
|
ACT Environmental Management Authority (established 1997) |
Environmental Protection Act 1997 Environmental Protection Operations Act 1997 |
|
New South Wales EPA (established 1992) |
Protection of the Environment Establishment Act 1992 Waste Minimisation and Management Act 1995 Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997 Contaminated Land Management Act 1997 Environment Trust Act 1998Pesticides Act 1999 14 other pieces of existing legislation |
|
Northern Territory No separate EPA. Department of Lands, Planning and Environment administers Acts. |
Environmental Assessment Act 1996 National Environmental Protection Council (NT) Act Uranium Mining Environment Control Act and Mine Management Act regulate radioactive mineral mining |
|
Queensland EPA (established 1999) |
Environmental Protection Act 1994 Nature Conservation Act 1992 Coastal Protection and Management Act 1995 Queensland Heritage Act 1992 20 other pieces of existing legislation |
|
South Australia EPA (established 1993) |
Environmental Protection Act 1993 Environment Protection (Burning, Waste Management, Milking Shed Effluent, Marine) Policy Acts 1994 Coast Protection Act 1972 |
|
Tasmania No separate EPA. State of the Environment reports under Department of Environment and Land Management |
Environmental Management and Pollution Control Act 1994 Environmental Management Amendment Act 2000 State Policy and Projects Act 1993 Land Use and Planning Approvals Act 1993 |
|
Victoria EPA (established 1970) |
Environment Protection Act 1970, revised 1996 to incorporate 25 other pieces of existing legislation dealing with control of pollution on land, water, air and noise |
|
Western Australia EPA (established 1986) |
Environmental Protection Act 1986 Environmental protection policies have been separately developed under this omnibus Act |
Other major National initiatives in managing waste, and protecting all environments from the effects of anthropogenic pollution have occurred very recently. These include:
- Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals (Administration) Act 1992 and subsequent establishment of the National Registration Authority for Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals in 1993,
- the National Strategy for the Management of Scheduled Waste in 1994,
- the National Strategy for the Management of Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals in 1998,
- the Australian Minerals Industry Code for Environmental Management in 1996, revised in 2000,
- the establishment of the National Pollutant Inventory in 1998, and
- setting up of a working group to developed a national pesticides database in 1999.
Some of these initiatives have become operational, and have progressed from planning to action; others remain more as an acceptance of principle rather than implemented in fact. The degree to which governments have been able to engage and cooperate with industry sectors has varied (see later sections).