Contaminated land

What to do if land is contaminated, how we deal with it and prevent it, and the current list of notified sites.

Contamination may threaten human health and the environment, limit land use or increase development costs. Contaminated land is typically grouped in areas that have been used for industrial or agricultural activities, or individual sites that store chemicals, such as service stations and dry cleaners.

The management framework for contaminated land in NSW broadly consists of two tiers:

• the EPA, which uses its powers under the Contaminated Land Management Act 1997 (CLM Act) to deal with contamination that is significant enough to warrant regulation given the site’s current or approved use.
• planning authorities, who deal with other contamination under the planning and development process, including the State Environmental Planning Policy (Resilience and Hazards) 2021 and the Managing Land Contamination - Planning Guidelines (PDF 219KB), on sites which do not pose an unacceptable risk under their current or approved use. This process determines what remediation is needed to make the land suitable for a different use. 

More information

• Engaging a consultant to investigate and remediate contamination in NSW
• NSW site auditor scheme that provides a pool of accredited 'site auditors' who can be engaged to review investigation, remediation and validation work done by consultants.
• Notified and regulated contaminated land
• Guidance on contaminated land - statutory guidelines and non-statutory guidelines and documents
• Requirements for underground petroleum storage systems
• Best practice measures to prevent contamination at marina sites (PDF 424KB) and for managing dry cleaning waste
• NSW State of the Environment report