Site protection
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ALTHOUGH prevention is the best medicine, there are a number of ways a person or company can protect themselves from being responsible for cleaning up a contaminated site.
Blake Dawson Waldron believes four basic points could be followed as a good starting point to minimise problems.
Firstly, a company could develop an environmental risk management system to mitigate the risk of contamination.
Second, a financier may request a disclosure statement from a vendor, or conduct an environmental due diligence THE Minim Cove development and the East Perth Gasworks stand out as the State’s highest profile contamination locations of recent times – due to their massive clean-up costs and high level of public awareness.
To assist developers, companies and lenders, the Department of Environmental Protection has developed a series of guidelines to help identify and assess potential contaminated sites in a staged approach.
These guidelines are available at the Department’s website www.environ.wa.gov.au.
One guideline, Potentially Contaminating Activities, Industries and Land uses, provides a quick reference on the types of activities that may contaminate the environment.
In addition to the material provided by the DEP, the Environmental Protection Authority has published a guidance document entitled Guidance Statement for Remediation Hierarchy for Contaminated Land, which presents the principles to be taken into account when selecting methods for cleaning up a contaminated site.