Who has to remediate classified contaminated sites?
The Act regulates “contaminated sites”. A “site” is an area of land or water in Western Australia, including surface water, groundwater and offshore areas out to 3 nautical miles. A site is “contaminated” if it has a substance in it at above background concentrations which presents or has the potential to present a risk of harm to human health or the “environment”. The environment includes living things and their physical and biological surroundings, and interactions between these. The Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC)’s Guidelines for “Potentially Contaminating Activities, Industries and Land uses” and “Reporting of Known or Suspected Contaminated Sites” help determine whether a site is contaminated.
