EPA's draft EREP Regulations open for public comment

Any person or company in Victoria undertaking a "scheduled activity" must now prepare an Environment and Resource Efficiency Plan ("EREP"), but much of the detail has been unclear as it will be dealt with in the Regulations. The EPA has now released draft Regulations and Guidelines, and is seeking public comment by Friday 19 October 2007.

EREPs

The purpose of an EREP is to encourage awareness about resource use, identify areas of inefficiency and devise and implement strategies to reduce inefficiencies.

Specifically, an EREP is required to:

• describe the resource usage and/or disposal of waste off-site generated by a scheduled activity;
• outline a plan with strategies to reduce resource usage or waste disposal;
• set timeframes for implementing the plan;
• implement all strategies which have a payback period of three years or less within the set timeframe; and
• describe how the plan will be monitored and for how long it will be in operation.

Like the new provisions in the Act, the Regulations will apply to industrial and commercial sites at which a scheduled activity takes place – a scheduled activity is either the use of certain environmental resources above the threshold or the disposal of certain wastes offsite in excess of the threshold. Sites which are used for residential and primary production purposes are exempt from the new EREP requirements.

What are the thresholds?

The Draft Regulations have prescribed thresholds for the use of environmental resources which, if exceeded, will trigger the requirement for an EREP.

As set out in sub-regulation 5(6), these thresholds are the use of:

• 100 terajoules of energy; or
• 120 megalitres of water

in any trigger year, being the financial year (beginning on 1 July 2006 or after) in which the scheduled activity was undertaken.

When will an EREP be needed?

Any person or company undertaking a scheduled activity as at 1 January 2008 must register with the EPA by 31 March 2008 or face a penalty of $6, 607. Persons who undertake a scheduled activity after 1 January 2008 must register within three months after the end of the trigger year.

Those persons registered by 31 March 2008 must prepare an EREP and submit it to the EPA for approval by 31 December 2008. Extensions of up to 12 months may be granted where energy or water use does not exceed:

• 250 terajoules of energy; and
• 150 megalitres of water.

The EPA must decide whether to approve an EREP within four months of submission. If an EREP is rejected, it must be re-submitted having regard to the changes recommended by the EPA.

Exemptions

Exemptions from registration apply if the EPA is satisfied that:

• the energy or water use which exceeded the threshold was uncharacteristically high; or
• the activity which exceeded the threshold will cease or change substantially within 12 months after the end of the trigger year such that the energy or water use falls below the threshold.

A person or company who is already on the register can apply for a whole or partial exemption from preparing an EREP if, for example, there is already an alternative action plan in place and the EPA is satisfied that preparation of an EREP is unlikely to result in any significant improvement to efficiency.

Efficiency actions developed through other resource efficiency programs, such as the waterMAP program in Victoria, can be set off against the new EREP requirements.

Any exemptions must be applied for before the 31 March 2008 deadline for registration.