Message from the CEO
We know how valuable it is to have the latest information and advice during this COVID-19 pandemic. We all want to know the risks and rules to keep our families, friends and colleagues, and ourselves, healthy and safe. We are all talking about how we need to stay resilient and where we can build resilience, and forward planning to anticipate emerging issues, into our operations. Many of our stories in this edition of EPA Connect are focused on just that.
Tracy Mackey EPA CEO
The EPA has been working hard over the past year to keep industry, councils and the community up to date across areas of our work, particularly around keeping essential waste collection and management services going, in both metro and regional areas, and keeping our communities and the environment safe.
In our update bulletins, we have been inviting licensees, stakeholders and partners to speak to us about any unanticipated issues thrown up as a consequence of the pandemic, that might prevent them from meeting their environmental obligations. We want to work together early, on solutions, to prevent those consequences from being realised.
You can find out about our response to COVID-19 on our website.
EPA staff continue to carry out essential field work during the Covid-19 restrictions
We also want our own staff to stay safe while in the field, especially when out on the road doing essential work attending incidents or conducting inspections. I’m so pleased to see the successful collaboration between our licensees and our officers when COVID-19 restrictions or distance renders visits to be carried out remotely. In practice this means we have been jumping into using more online imagery, maps, drones and virtual meetings.
And while there is no substitute for face-to-face engagement, we are delivering the best online information sessions we can, to keep those communication channels open and our work to protect the environment flowing.
The first Waste and Sustainable Materials Strategy virtual workshops were held recently and in November we will be hosting the next forums in our Roadshow series for peak bodies and community, interested in our work.
As we embrace the arrival of spring we have started to plan and prepare for the last quarter of the year which is forecast to be wetter than usual. We are working closely across government to identify risks, and to ensure we are all prepared. We are also looking to the future as we work towards implementing our new Strategic Plan
We will continue to work closely with all our stakeholders to keep you up to date. I encourage all of you, to continue letting us know of any issues or risks as we start to reopen and move forward with the State’s roadmap to recovery.
Stay safe everyone
Tracy