DWER News – Contaminated Soils

The Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (DWER) advises that it no longer requires hard copy submissions (including technical reports) relating to contaminated sites or acid sulfate soils.

The Department is intending to develop an online submission portal in the future. In the interim, all submissions relating to contaminated sites or acid sulfate soils should be submitted via email to info@dwer.wa.gov.au<mailto:info@dwer.wa.gov.au>, unless the Department has specifically requested otherwise (such as when a report is required urgently).  Formal submissions, including statutory forms and technical reports should not be emailed to individual officers or to the generic Contaminated Sites email address.Statutory forms (including Form 1, Form 2, Form 3 and Form 6) should now be submitted electronically via email to info@dwer.wa.gov.au<mailto:info@dwer.wa.gov.au>. Please ensure that the forms are signed and provided as a PDF file. If you are submitting a Form 1 report of a known or suspected contaminated site and you have a duty to report under section 11 of the Contaminated Sites Act 2003, please ensure that current certificates of title are provided for each land parcel being reported.

An online payment system is currently being developed for Form 2 ‘requests for a summary of records in respect of land’. A further update will be provided when the system becomes operational.

All technical reports should be provided as a text-searchable PDF file. All relevant appendices should be provided within the same PDF file. An exception is for PDF files larger than approximately 300 – 500 pages, when the provision of large appendices (such as laboratory certificates) in separate PDF files is supported to make the electronic document faster to load, read and save.

For the submission of technical reports, the email should include the following detail:

*         a clear description of the site, including the legal description, street address and common name;
*         DWER reference number (eg DMO XXX), if known;
*         identification and contact details of the report submitter;
*         purpose for submitting the report, where relevant (e.g. seeking reclassification, planning condition clearance);
*         for acid sulfate soil reports, specify if the report is being submitted for planning condition clearance, and/or in support of a licence under the Rights in Water and Irrigation Act 1914; and
*         a list of the technical reports being submitted.

Providing this information will assist us in processing your submission in a timely manner.

Where possible, reports and any other documents being submitted should be attached to the email as PDF files. Zipped folders will not be accepted. If the total size of the email, with attachments, exceeds 50 MB, DWER will accept submissions via File Transfer Protocol (FTP). If using FTP, please ensure that:

the access link is not restricted to an individual officer;

login is not required for access; and

a covering letter is included in the submission with the details outlined above.

Email is the preferred method of submission. However, if you are unable to make a submission via email, please post a hard copy, including a covering letter when relevant (with attachments on an accompanying CD/DVD/USB flash drive) to:

Senior Manager, Contaminated Sites
Department of Water and Environmental Regulation
Locked Bag 33
Cloisters Square WA 6850

If posting bulky electronic storage devices, such as USB flash drives, please ensure that the packaging meets the minimum requirements specified by the relevant postal service.