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Site contamination is a significant health and environmental concern. As such it must be appropriately assessed and, where necessary, remediated (117.9 KB PDF).
Only suitably qualified and experienced persons (45.2 KB PDF) should undertake assessment and remediation. In South Australia the Environment Protection Act 1993 establishes a legislative framework for the management of site contamination.
Responsibility for site contamination (117.9 KB PDF) is assigned in accordance with the 'polluter pays' principle.
Accordingly the original polluter has liability for contamination caused on and off the source site regardless of when it was caused. However, if it is not possible to find that person (because the person has died or the business no longer exists, for example), then liability passes to the site owner. However, the site owner's liability may be limited to only the owner's site and liability is dependent on the owner's knowledge of the site contamination at the time of purchase (36.8 KB PDF).
A person can gain or divest liability for site contamination through a transfer of liability for site contamination agreement (75.1 KB PDF).
A person can also gain liability by causing site contamination through changing the land use.
A person who owns a site has obligations of reporting site contamination of groundwater (135.5 KB PDF) to the EPA.
If you are an owner of site that has site contamination, there may be a need to engage a site contamination auditor. For more information on the audit system click here (114.7 KB PDF).
Last modified: 20/03/2012 10:53 am
