Environmentally relevant activities
What are environmentally relevant activities (ERAs)?
ERAs are usually industrial activities with the potential to release contaminants to the environment, for example chemical processing, waste treatment, spray painting etc. Some agricultural activities such as piggeries, prawn farms and cattle feedlots are also ERAs. ERAs are defined in schedule 2 of the Environmental Protection Regulation 2008. Mining and chapter 5A activities (including petroleum activities) are also ERAs. More information on mining activities is available at Environmental Management/Land/Mining.
Mining and petroleum activities will not be considered here. The term ERAs will be used to refer to ERAs other than mining and chapter 5A activities (petroleum activities).
Levels of ERAs
There are two levels of ERAs:
- ERAs with an aggregate environmental score (AES) are considered to present a higher risk to the environment. There is an annual fee based on the AES for these ERAs.
- ERAs without an AES are considered to present a lower risk to the environment. There is a set annual fee for these ERAs.
ERAs (excluding mining and petroleum activities) are required to have a development approval (unless there is a code of environmental compliance for the particular ERA or certain aspects of the ERA) AND a registration certificate (see Ecoaccess for further information).
Information on fees can be found in the information sheets Fees for permits for environmentally relevant activities (ERAs) - EM33 (PDF, 88K)* and Summary of annual fees for environmentally relevant activities (ERAs) - EM389 (PDF, 194K)*.
Assessment of applications to operate ERAs
Officers of the department use a range of operational policies and guidelines in assessing applications for development approvals or registration certificates.
The department declared several wild rivers under the Wild Rivers Act 2005 to preserve the natural values. All environmentally relevant activities (besides mining and chapter 5A activities - including petroleum activities) proposed within wild river areas are assessable development under the Sustainable Planning Act 2009, Schedule 3, Part 1, Table 5, Item 5. Therefore the department's codes of environmental compliance do not apply if an application is made within a declared wild river area.
For more information and guidance regarding legislative requirements under the Wild Rivers Act 2005 for applications made within declared wild river areas, please look at development in wild river areas.
Administration and enforcement
The administration and enforcement of ERAs is shared between the department and local government, with the exception of intensive animal feedlotting (ERA 2) and pig keeping (ERA 3), which are delegated to the Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation.
The information sheet Environmentally relevant activities devolved to local governments lists the ERAs devolved to local government. An activity is not devolved to the local government if the activity:
- includes a non-devolved ERA at the same place; or
- is carried out by a local government or the State; or
- is a mobile and temporary ERA and is carried out in more than one local government area.
For more information see Ecoaccess.
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Last updated 18 January 2012