Environmentally Relevant Activities (ERAs) are activities that will or have the potential to release contaminants into the environment that may cause environmental harm. It is a requirement of the Environmental Protection Act 1994 (EP Act) and the Environmental Protection Regulation 2008 (EP Regs) that anyone who conducts an ERA must possess an environmental authority.

Changes to EP Act and EP Regs

The Queensland Government on 31 March 2013 changed the provisions of the EP Act and Regulations. 

A number of environmentally relevant activities (ERA's) have been deleted under the Regulations. Businesses previously holding a registration certificate with Council to operate an ERA that has been deleted will no longer require the registration certificate to operate and will be made exempt from the licensing requirements. View a list of the deleted ERAs.

It is important to note that any environmental conditions that have been prescribed under a development condition that formed part of a Council approval to conduct an ERA will remain in force even though the ERA category has been deleted under the Regulations. If Council assesses an activity that is no longer required to have an approval under the EP Act, it will be legally bound to comply with these development conditions.

Another change relates to the terminology used in the legislation. The certificate of registration will now be referred to as an environmental authority. 

Local Government devolved ERAs

The following ERAs are devolved to Local Government as listed in schedule 1 of the Environmental Protection Regulation 2008:

• ERA No. 12 Plastic product manufacturing
• ERA No. 19 Metal forming (greater than 1000 tonnes per year but excluding cold processing)
• ERA No. 20 Metal recovery
• ERA No. 38 Surface coating (for anodising, electroplating, enamelling or galvanising using 1 - 100 tonnes of materials per year)
• ERA No. 49 Boat maintaining and repairing (within 50 metres of a bed of naturally occurring surface waters)
• ERA No. 61 Waste incineration and thermal treatment

The above activities are not devolved to local government if any of the following apply:

• The activity includes a non-devolved ERA at the same place
• The activity is carried out by local or state government
• The activity is mobile and temporary ERA that is carried out in more than one local government area.

What activities are the Department of Environment & Heritage Protection responsible for?

ERAs not devolved to local government, listed in Schedule 2 of the Environmental Protection Regulation 2008 must be notified to the Department of Environmental and Heritage Protection (DEHP) within the state government. To find out what type of Licence or Permit you need and how to apply, visit the Department of Environmental and Heritage Protection. 

Notifiable Activities

In Schedule 3 of the Environmental Protection Act 1994, certain activities are defined as notifiable activities. If the owner or occupier of land becomes aware a notifiable activity is being carried out on the land, the owner or occupier must give notice to the Department of Environment and Resource Management (DERM) in the approved form below.

• DERM Notifiable Activity form