Protection of the Environment Operations (General) Regulation 2022
The Protection of the Environment Operations (General) Regulation 2022 came into force on 1 September 2022. It is an important part of the framework that requires industry and licensees to operate in environmentally responsible ways throughout NSW.
View a summary of the Regulation or review its full text.
The Regulation differs from the previous regulation, with changes ranging from significant, minor, and administrative in nature.
Key changes to the General Regulation include:
- introducing a new application fee and updating and indexing existing fees to improve the EPA’s cost recovery
- amending the definition of some scheduled activities in the POEO Act such as extractive activities, aquaculture and mariculture and shipping in bulk, to ensure the EPA is regulating activities that warrant its oversight
- changes to National Pollutant Inventory (NPI) reporting requirements to capture the amount of NPI substances used each year
- clarifying pollution incident and response management plan testing requirements for licensees, and
- aligning thresholds for waste generation activities with the POEO Act.
Licensees that need to vary their licence because of changes, or operators of existing activities that now require a licence because of the changes, will have until 1 June 2023 to vary their licence or obtain a licence.
For further information about the changes, refer to the following:
The Regulation was on public consultation from the 11 March 2022 to the 14 April 2022. For a summary of submissions received and EPA’s response visit https://yoursay.epa.nsw.gov.au/poeo-general-regulation-2022.