Environmental Protection Act 1986 (WA)
Environmental Protection Act 1986 (WA) pollution, waste-discharge, environmental-harm and notification offences applicable to an asset-light project-logistics integrator (Tier 1/Tier 2 offences in Part V Divisions 1, 4 and 5; officer liability under s.118A)
- Requirements
- 10
- Last reviewed
- 25/05/2026
- Next review
- 25/05/2027
- Source
- Environmental Protection Act 1986 (WA) — compilation 09-y0-00, current as at 19 February 2026, incorporating amendments to and including Act No. 9 of 2023 s. 63 and 64 (Criminal Code s. 41 alignment) and the Schedule 1 penalty refresh under No. 36 of 2024 s. 39.
Reconciliation notes
Curated build raised as a Phase C batch 5b framework (S142, 2026-05-25) because GOV-POL-004 (Environmental Management Policy) had no register anchor for its Environment Protection Act 1986 (WA) traceability rows — Part V Division 1 pollution / environmental-harm offences and the Part V Division 4 notification duty are the principal Westlink-side criminal exposures from the Act and need register-level evidence. Primary anchor policy: GOV-POL-004. Scope decisions: (a) the Act is the substantive Westlink-side environmental criminal-law instrument in WA — Part V Division 1 (pollution / environmental harm), Division 4 (notification), Division 5 (defences) and Part VIII (officer liability) carry duties that bind any operator that may cause emissions or discharges; (b) eight rows are captured against provisions a project-logistics integrator with onsite operations is exposed to — s.49(2)/(3) (causing pollution; intentional/criminal-negligence Tier 1 and strict Tier 1), s.49A(2)/(3) (dumping waste in or outside water to which the public has access; both Tier 2), s.50 (causing waste to be placed in a position likely to result in pollution; Tier 1), s.50A (causing serious environmental harm; Tier 1), s.50B (causing material environmental harm; Tier 1), s.51 (occupier duty to comply with prescribed emission standards and to take all reasonable and practicable measures to prevent or minimise emissions; Tier 2), s.72 (occupier duty to notify the DWER CEO of discharges of waste that have caused or are likely to cause pollution or environmental harm; Tier 2), and s.118A (criminal liability of officers of a body corporate, via Criminal Code s.41, for Tier 1 and Tier 2 offences) — the executive-due-diligence exposure; (c) Part V Division 2 (clearing of native vegetation, ss 51A-51U) is captured as one referenced-only row only — Westlink does not own land and rarely clears native vegetation in its own right but works on client tenements where a client-held clearing permit may apply, so the s.51C strict-liability offence and the s.51E clearing-permit regime are noted as the awareness context for project mobilisation rather than as a Westlink-borne duty; (d) provisions binding only licensees of prescribed (Part V Division 3) premises (works approvals under s.54, licences under s.57) are excluded — Westlink does not hold a Part V Division 3 licence and does not operate prescribed premises; (e) s.86 is not the contaminated-sites notification provision — in this Act s.86 deals with the manufacture or sale of products emitting excessive noise; the duty to notify suspected contamination of land sits in the Contaminated Sites Act 2003 (WA) s.11 and is therefore not captured here (separate-framework candidate if a contaminated-site exposure later materialises); (f) the NGER Act 2007 (Cth) is not built as a separate framework — Westlink at ~13 employees and well below the 25 kt CO2-e corporate / 50 kt facility NGER reporting thresholds is not a registered NGER reporter, so the NGER citation in GOV-POL-004 is downstream-cleanup work, not a register row; (g) EPBC Act 1999 (Cth) significant-impact prohibitions on listed matters (s.18 etc.) are not duplicated here — National and Commonwealth Heritage prohibitions (ss 15B/15C/27B/27C) are already captured in `aboriginal-heritage-act-wa.md`; an EPBC environmental-protection cluster (listed threatened species/communities, Ramsar wetlands, migratory species, water resources) is a Phase E candidate if a project ever triggers a referral. Coverage is assessed against GOV-POL-004 rev 3 (12/03/2026 best-practice rewrite), which commits to pollution prevention, ISO 14001:2015 conformance, waste-hierarchy controls, spill / emission / noise minimisation, and reporting of environmental incidents and spills. The recurring Partial theme is that operational controls (spill response, contractor environmental briefings, route-and-laydown environmental screening, DWER-CEO notification triggers) sit at procedure level — no environmental incident notification procedure exists yet; QHSE-PRO-001 covers hazard/incident reporting but does not call out the s.72 statutory notification trigger. Total requirements: 10. Applicable: 9. Reference only: 1. Coverage: Full 0, Partial 9, Referenced-only 1, Gap 0. ISO 14001:2026 cross-reference: the parallel ISO 14001:2026 cl.6.1.3 (compliance obligations) and cl.8.1 (operational planning and control) sit in `iso-14001-2026.md` and are not duplicated here.
Requirements
Showing 10 of 10 requirements
| ID | Clause | Requirement | Applicability | Coverage | Evidence | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EP-WA-49-01 | EP Act 1986 (WA) s.49(2) + s.49(3) | A person who intentionally or with criminal negligence (a) causes pollution, or (b) allows pollution to be caused, commits a Tier 1 offence (s.49(2)); a person who causes pollution or allows pollution to be caused commits a Tier 1 offence on a strict basis (s.49(3)). Maximum penalty for a body corporate convicted under s.49(2) is $1,000,000 with a daily penalty of $200,000 (Schedule 1 Part 1 Division 2 item 4); for s.49(3) it is $500,000 with a daily penalty of $100,000 (item 5). A person charged under s.49(2) may be convicted of an offence against s.49(3) which is established by the evidence (s.49(6)). | Applicable | Partial |
| Medium GOV-POL-004 makes the policy-level commitment. The operational controls that prevent a s.49 offence (spill response, fuel and hydraulic transfer procedures, contractor environmental controls, environmental-aspect assessment at mobilisation) sit at procedure level. Develop an environmental management procedure and a spill response procedure operationalising the GOV-POL-004 commitments; brief officers on the s.118A personal-liability exposure for a Tier 1 offence (via Criminal Code s.41). |
| EP-WA-49A-01 | EP Act 1986 (WA) s.49A(2) + s.49A(3) | A person who discharges or abandons, or causes or allows to be discharged or abandoned, any solid or liquid waste in water to which the public has access commits a Tier 2 offence (s.49A(2)); a person who does so on or in any place other than water to which the public has access commits a Tier 2 offence (s.49A(3)). It is a defence to s.49A(3) for a person to show that the waste was discharged or abandoned with the consent of the person who controlled and managed that place (s.49A(4)). A person charged under s.49A(2) or (3) may be convicted of an offence against the Litter Act 1979 s.23 which is established by the evidence (s.49A(5)). | Applicable | Partial |
| Medium Policy commits to lawful waste handling but the operational controls preventing a s.49A offence (workshop and depot waste segregation, transport-waste manifest discipline, project-laydown spoil-and-waste protocols, contractor waste-disposal verification) sit at procedure level. A waste management plan (QHSE-PLN-003 is cross-referenced in GOV-POL-004 Related Documents but is not yet drafted) should set the operational controls. |
| EP-WA-50-01 | EP Act 1986 (WA) s.50(1) + s.50(2) | A person who intentionally or with criminal negligence causes or allows waste to be placed in any position from which the waste (c) could reasonably be expected to gain access to any portion of the environment, and (d) would in so gaining access be likely to result in pollution, commits a Tier 1 offence (s.50(1)). A person who does the same on a strict basis (without the intentional / criminal-negligence element) commits a Tier 1 offence (s.50(2)). Maximum penalty for a body corporate convicted under s.50(1) is $1,000,000 with a daily penalty of $200,000 (Schedule 1 Part 1 Division 2 item 7); for s.50(2) it is $500,000 with a daily penalty of $100,000 (item 8). A person charged under s.50(1) may be convicted of an offence against s.50(2) or s.49A(2) or (3) (s.50(3)). | Applicable | Partial |
| Medium The s.50 exposure is the laydown / project-site / transport-route variant of the s.49 pollution offence. Operational controls — laydown bunding, fuel and chemical storage standards, run-off control, transport-route environmental screening — sit at procedure level. Develop an environmental management procedure with explicit s.50 controls (storage location risk-screening, secondary containment standards, stockpile/spoil placement rules). |
| EP-WA-50A-01 | EP Act 1986 (WA) s.50A | A person who, intentionally or with criminal negligence, (a) causes serious environmental harm or (b) allows serious environmental harm to be caused, commits a Tier 1 offence (s.50A(1)); a person who causes or allows serious environmental harm to be caused commits a Tier 1 offence on a strict basis (s.50A(2)). Maximum penalty for a body corporate under s.50A(1) is $1,000,000 with a daily penalty of $200,000 (Schedule 1 Part 1 Division 2 item 8A); for s.50A(2) it is $500,000 with a daily penalty of $100,000 (item 8B). A person charged under s.50A(1) may be convicted of an offence against s.50A(2) (s.50A(3)). A person charged under s.50A may also be convicted of an offence against s.50B(1) or (2) or s.51C which is established by the evidence (s.50C). | Applicable | Partial |
| Medium A s.50A offence is the catastrophic-tier exposure (e.g. a major fuel or hydraulic-fluid spill into a watercourse, a heavy-haulage incident causing widespread habitat damage). Emergency preparedness, escalation triggers and environmental incident response controls operationalise the policy-level commitment but sit at procedure level. Develop an emergency preparedness and response procedure (ISO 14001:2026 cl.8.2) covering reasonably foreseeable serious-environmental-harm scenarios. |
| EP-WA-50B-01 | EP Act 1986 (WA) s.50B | A person who intentionally or with criminal negligence (a) causes material environmental harm or (b) allows material environmental harm to be caused, commits a Tier 1 offence (s.50B(1)); a person who causes or allows material environmental harm to be caused commits a Tier 1 offence on a strict basis (s.50B(2)). Maximum penalty for a body corporate under s.50B(1) is $500,000 with a daily penalty of $100,000 (Schedule 1 Part 1 Division 2 item 8C); s.50B(2) likewise carries a body-corporate penalty under Schedule 1. A person charged under s.50B(1) may be convicted of an offence against s.50B(2) (s.50B(3)). | Applicable | Partial |
| Medium The s.50B (material environmental harm) threshold is materially lower than s.50A and is the more probable Tier 1 exposure for routine operational incidents. The same procedure-level controls (spill response, environmental incident management, contractor environmental briefings) close both s.50A and s.50B risk; develop the environmental management procedure and brief officers on the s.118A liability for both. |
| EP-WA-51-01 | EP Act 1986 (WA) s.51 | The occupier of any premises who does not (a) comply with any prescribed standard for an emission and (b) take all reasonable and practicable measures to prevent or minimise emissions, from those premises commits an offence (Tier 2). 'Premises' for this purpose includes workshop, depot, project-laydown and other sites that Westlink occupies or controls. The duty has two limbs (compliance with the prescribed standard and the take-all-reasonable-and-practicable-measures duty) which apply cumulatively. | Applicable | Partial |
| Medium An occupier-of-premises duty applies wherever Westlink controls a yard, workshop, depot or laydown. The 'reasonable and practicable measures' standard is procedure-and-controls work — workshop emissions controls, vehicle washdown / hardstand drainage, dust suppression on laydowns, and noise management for transport operations need an environmental management procedure with site-level checklists. |
| EP-WA-51C-01 | EP Act 1986 (WA) Part V Div 2 (esp. ss 51C, 51E) | Part V Division 2 prohibits the clearing of native vegetation other than in accordance with a clearing permit granted under s.51E or an exemption (s.51C is the substantive offence). The duty principally binds the proponent of a clearing activity — typically the landholder, tenement holder or proponent of works. Westlink, as an asset-light project-logistics integrator that does not own land or clear native vegetation in its own right, operates on client tenements where the client typically holds (or is required to obtain) any clearing permit; Westlink's exposure is procedural — to confirm at project mobilisation that any clearing permit required for the work area is held by the client and to operate within its conditions. | Reference only | Referenced-only |
| Reference only — the s.51C clearing-permit regime principally binds the proponent / tenement holder, not Westlink. Westlink's obligation is to verify at mobilisation that any required clearing permit is held by the client and to operate within its conditions; the environmental management procedure should include a pre-mobilisation native-vegetation clearing check (alongside the heritage management procedure noted in `aboriginal-heritage-act-wa.md`). |
| EP-WA-72-01 | EP Act 1986 (WA) s.72(1) | If a discharge of waste (a) occurs as a result of an emergency, accident or malfunction; or (b) occurs otherwise than in accordance with a works approval or licence or with a requirement contained in an environmental protection notice; or (c) is of a prescribed kind or a kind notified in writing to the occupier concerned, and has caused or is likely to cause pollution, material environmental harm or serious environmental harm, the occupier of the premises on or from which that discharge took place who does not, as soon as practicable after that discharge, give the CEO oral or electronic notification followed by written notification of the prescribed details of that discharge commits a Tier 2 offence (Schedule 1 Part 2 Division 3 item 5 — $50,000 with a daily penalty of $10,000). | Applicable | Full |
| |
| EP-WA-73A-01 | EP Act 1986 (WA) s.73A(6) + s.73A(7) | A person who intentionally or with criminal negligence does not comply with a requirement contained in a prevention notice given to that person under s.73A(1), without reasonable excuse for that contravention, commits a Tier 1 offence (s.73A(6)); a person who does not comply with a requirement contained in a prevention notice given to that person, without reasonable excuse, commits a Tier 1 offence on a strict basis (s.73A(7)). Maximum penalty for a body corporate under s.73A(6) is $500,000 with a daily penalty of $100,000 (Schedule 1 Part 1 Division 2 item 12). A prevention notice is issued by an inspector or authorised person, with CEO approval, where the inspector reasonably suspects an unauthorised discharge, a likely or arisen condition of pollution, or a s.50A/50B contravention. | Applicable | Partial |
| Medium Receipt of a statutory environmental notice (prevention notice under s.73A, environmental protection notice under s.65, vegetation conservation notice) is not operationalised in the WMS — there is no register of statutory notices, no escalation path to the CEO, and no controlled-document trail for tracking compliance with notice conditions. Add a statutory environmental notices register and an escalation-and-compliance protocol to the environmental management procedure. |
| EP-WA-118A-01 | EP Act 1986 (WA) s.118A | The Criminal Code section 41 (which provides for the criminal liability of officers of a body corporate) applies to Tier 1 offences and Tier 2 offences under this Act. The effect is that where a body corporate commits a Tier 1 or Tier 2 offence under the Act (which includes ss 49, 50, 50A, 50B, 51, 72 and 73A captured in this framework), an officer of the body corporate may also be criminally liable on the basis set out in Criminal Code s.41 (typically where the offence was committed with the officer's consent or connivance or was attributable to the officer's neglect). | Applicable | Gap | — | High Officer criminal liability under EP Act 1986 (WA) s.118A not articulated in GOV-POL-004; officer due-diligence exposure undocumented. |
Source document
Environmental Protection Act 1986 (WA) pollution, waste-discharge, environmental-harm and notification offences applicable to an asset-light project-logistics integrator (Tier 1/Tier 2 offences in Part V Divisions 1, 4 and 5; officer liability under s.118A)
10 normative shall-statements extracted from Environmental Protection Act 1986 (WA) (source: Environmental Protection Act 1986 (WA) — official compilation [09-y0-00] current as at 19 February 2026, legislation.wa.gov.au). The frontmatter requirements array is the source of truth — this body is rendered by scripts/render_compliance.py.
Coverage summary
| Coverage | Count |
|---|---|
| ✅ Full | 1 |
| 🟡 Partial | 7 |
| 🟠 Ref-only | 1 |
| 🔴 Gap | 1 |
| — N/A | 0 |
Gap severity distribution
| Severity | Count |
|---|---|
| 🔴 Critical | 0 |
| 🟠 High | 1 |
| 🟡 Medium | 7 |
| 🟢 Low | 0 |
Requirements
Clause EP Act 1986 (WA) Part V Div 2 (esp
| ID | Coverage | Evidence | Gap | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EP-WA-51C-01 | 🟠 Ref-only | [GOV-POL-004 §Organisational Context](/wms/GOV-POL-004#sOrganisational Context) | Reference only — the s.51C clearing-permit regime principally binds the proponent / tenement holder, not Westlink. Westlink’s obligation is to verify at mobilisation that any required clearing permit is held by the client and to operate within its conditions; the environmental management procedure should include a pre-mobilisation native-vegetation clearing check (alongside the heritage management procedure noted in aboriginal-heritage-act-wa.md). |
Clause EP Act 1986 (WA) s
| ID | Coverage | Evidence | Gap | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EP-WA-49-01 | 🟡 Partial | [GOV-POL-004 §Policy Statement](/wms/GOV-POL-004#sPolicy Statement) [GOV-POL-004 §Organisational Context](/wms/GOV-POL-004#sOrganisational Context) | 🟡 Medium | GOV-POL-004 makes the policy-level commitment. The operational controls that prevent a s.49 offence (spill response, fuel and hydraulic transfer procedures, contractor environmental controls, environmental-aspect assessment at mobilisation) sit at procedure level. Develop an environmental management procedure and a spill response procedure operationalising the GOV-POL-004 commitments; brief officers on the s.118A personal-liability exposure for a Tier 1 offence (via Criminal Code s.41). |
| EP-WA-49A-01 | 🟡 Partial | [GOV-POL-004 §Policy Statement](/wms/GOV-POL-004#sPolicy Statement) | 🟡 Medium | Policy commits to lawful waste handling but the operational controls preventing a s.49A offence (workshop and depot waste segregation, transport-waste manifest discipline, project-laydown spoil-and-waste protocols, contractor waste-disposal verification) sit at procedure level. A waste management plan (QHSE-PLN-003 is cross-referenced in GOV-POL-004 Related Documents but is not yet drafted) should set the operational controls. |
| EP-WA-50-01 | 🟡 Partial | [GOV-POL-004 §Policy Statement](/wms/GOV-POL-004#sPolicy Statement) | 🟡 Medium | The s.50 exposure is the laydown / project-site / transport-route variant of the s.49 pollution offence. Operational controls — laydown bunding, fuel and chemical storage standards, run-off control, transport-route environmental screening — sit at procedure level. Develop an environmental management procedure with explicit s.50 controls (storage location risk-screening, secondary containment standards, stockpile/spoil placement rules). |
| EP-WA-50A-01 | 🟡 Partial | [GOV-POL-004 §Policy Statement](/wms/GOV-POL-004#sPolicy Statement) | 🟡 Medium | A s.50A offence is the catastrophic-tier exposure (e.g. a major fuel or hydraulic-fluid spill into a watercourse, a heavy-haulage incident causing widespread habitat damage). Emergency preparedness, escalation triggers and environmental incident response controls operationalise the policy-level commitment but sit at procedure level. Develop an emergency preparedness and response procedure (ISO 14001:2026 cl.8.2) covering reasonably foreseeable serious-environmental-harm scenarios. |
| EP-WA-50B-01 | 🟡 Partial | [GOV-POL-004 §Policy Statement](/wms/GOV-POL-004#sPolicy Statement) | 🟡 Medium | The s.50B (material environmental harm) threshold is materially lower than s.50A and is the more probable Tier 1 exposure for routine operational incidents. The same procedure-level controls (spill response, environmental incident management, contractor environmental briefings) close both s.50A and s.50B risk; develop the environmental management procedure and brief officers on the s.118A liability for both. |
| EP-WA-51-01 | 🟡 Partial | [GOV-POL-004 §Policy Statement](/wms/GOV-POL-004#sPolicy Statement) | 🟡 Medium | An occupier-of-premises duty applies wherever Westlink controls a yard, workshop, depot or laydown. The ‘reasonable and practicable measures’ standard is procedure-and-controls work — workshop emissions controls, vehicle washdown / hardstand drainage, dust suppression on laydowns, and noise management for transport operations need an environmental management procedure with site-level checklists. |
| EP-WA-72-01 | ✅ Full | GOV-POL-004 §Responsibilities [QHSE-PRO-001 §Reporting and Notification](/wms/QHSE-PRO-001#sReporting and Notification) | ||
| EP-WA-73A-01 | 🟡 Partial | [GOV-POL-004 §Policy Statement](/wms/GOV-POL-004#sPolicy Statement) | 🟡 Medium | Receipt of a statutory environmental notice (prevention notice under s.73A, environmental protection notice under s.65, vegetation conservation notice) is not operationalised in the WMS — there is no register of statutory notices, no escalation path to the CEO, and no controlled-document trail for tracking compliance with notice conditions. Add a statutory environmental notices register and an escalation-and-compliance protocol to the environmental management procedure. |
| EP-WA-118A-01 | 🔴 Gap | — | 🟠 High | Officer criminal liability under EP Act 1986 (WA) s.118A not articulated in GOV-POL-004; officer due-diligence exposure undocumented. |
Rendered from frontmatter by scripts/render_compliance.py. Source extraction: scripts/extract_iso9001_requirements.py. Evidence population: scripts/populate_iso9001_evidence.py. Validate: scripts/compliance_validate.py.