Environmental Protection Act 1994

After receiving an application for an ERC decision for a resource activity, the administering authority must decide, for the ERC period, the amount of the estimated cost of—

rehabilitating the land on which the resource activity is carried out; and

preventing or minimising environmental harm, or rehabilitating or restoring the environment, in relation to the resource activity.

The amount of the estimated cost decided under subsection (1) is called the estimated rehabilitation cost for the resource activity.

The decision must be made within—

the later of—

15 business days after the application is received; or

if a notice given under section 299(1) is given to the holder of the environmental authority—10 business days after the day the further information is received or the holder fails to comply with the notice; or

if the holder agrees to a longer period of no more than 20 business days—the longer period.

However, if the decision is for an application that accompanied a de-amalgamation application, the decision must be made—

within the longer of the periods mentioned in subsection (3) that applies to a decision for any of the proposed de-amalgamated environmental authorities to which the application relates; and

at the same time as the decision under this section for each of the proposed de-amalgamated environmental authorities to which the application relates.

In making the decision, the administering authority must have regard to—

whether the estimate of the total cost mentioned in section 298(2)(c) has been worked out, for the ERC period, as mentioned in that paragraph; and

the guidelines under section 550.

The ERC decision—

takes effect on—

if the decision is for an application that accompanied a de-amalgamation application—the day the de-amalgamation takes effect under section 250D; or

otherwise—the day the decision is made; and

subject to section 305, remains in effect until the day the ERC period to which the decision relates ends.