December Policy Update

Guidance material to support implementation of General Environment Duty under the EP Act

Industry has provided several rounds of feedback to the consultants on the draft process flow charts, and we are now nearing the point where they can be considered largely finalised.

At the time of writing, the consultants are still awaiting feedback from EPA as to their level of support for the proposed approach to GED.  Once this has been received, the process flow charts and the supporting written documentation can be finalised.

 

Practical guidance documents to support the implementation of EPA revised guideline for water recycling

A workshop took place on 26 November 2021.  This workshop was the kick-off workshop for the development of:  A practical guide to help Class B and C scheme proponents develop a HEMP, including an application template, checklists, worked examples and lists of approved or specific technologies and approaches that are known to work and can be used for such schemes.

Water corporations provided good information in these workshops.  Further workshops will be held in early 2022 to shape up the other two practical guides.

 

Planning Codes for Sustainable Animal Industries

As noted in the last update, a number of water corporations have provided feedback on the draft Planning Codes.  The most recent feedback from DJPR is that they are working their way through the feedback and will come back to the group, most likely sometime in December or early in the New Year, to provide advice as to the key changes to the draft codes that have resulted from the feedback.

 

Cost of compliance project

Since the last update, the RFQ for this project has been finalised and sent out to a couple of relevant consultants.  We are currently awaiting their quotations. The closing date for submissions is December 22.

 

Proposed changes to the Workplace Exposure Standards for Hydrogen Sulfide

In response to the importance of this issue, since the last update, VicWater has written to the CEO of WorkSafe Victoria, to express industry’s concerns about the proposed changes, and raised the issue with DELWP.  We are awaiting a response from WorkSafe Victoria.