The Riverina and Murray Joint Organisation and Riverina Eastern Regional Organisation of Councils (REROC) are working together on delivering the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) Regional Capacity Building Program on Contaminated Land Management.

Funded by the NSW Government’s $4.2 million Council Regional Capacity Building Program, RAMJO and REROC are working with their councils to ensure integrated management and regulatory oversight of fuel handling and storage systems. Under the Contaminated Land Management Act 1997 (CLM Act), the EPA regulates contaminated land where the contamination is significant enough to warrant regulation. Contaminated land that is not regulated by the EPA is managed by local councils through land-use planning processes.

With Councils becoming the Authorised Regulatory Authority under the UPSS Regulation 2019 on 1 September 2019, the program is scheduled to run over three years with dedicated project staff to support participating Councils with their procedures and registers for managing contaminated land, as well as assisting the Councils with taking over responsibility of regulating underground petroleum storage systems (UPSS) from the Environment Protection Authority (EPA).
Project staff will provide expertise to assist RAMJO and REROC regional councils with regulation of UPSS, and provide assistance when dealing with land contamination issues arising from historical underground fuel tank leaks and from land which was formerly used for industrial activities. Project staff will work closely with Councils to strengthen capacity and capabilities on managing contaminated land in their services and business processes. Strengthening expertise in our region and upskilling Council staff through training will help to protect our communities and environment now, and for the long term.

The project will include a review of the Contaminated Land Management framework developed during a collaborative RAMJO/REROC 2014-2017 project which was also funded by the EPA Regional Capacity Building Program.

2021 CRCB RAMJO-REROC Training Resources

Workshops and training delivered under the RAMJO-REROC CRCB project has been made possible with NSW EPA funding, and has been developed in accordance with the NSW EPA grant guidelines.  The workshops and training have been recorded with the sole purpose of providing online training resources to our participating Councils during and beyond the lifetime of this CRCB project.  Any of the online training resources is not to be shared outside of council without the signed approval of RAMJO and/or REROC Executive Officers.

Click here to download our most up to date training resources

Further information regarding the Underground petroleum storage systems (UPSS) Regulations can be found at https://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/your-environment/contaminated-land/upss

Further information regarding the EPA Regional Capacity Building Program on contaminated land can be found at https://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/working-together/grants/council-regional-capacity-building-program

Contact the Contaminated Land Management Project Officer: ContaminatedLands@ramjo.nsw.gov.au