New South Wales Consolidated Acts

PROTECTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT OPERATIONS ACT 1997 - SECT 219

219 Other persons may institute proceedings with leave of Land and Environment Court

(1) Any person may institute proceedings in the Land and Environment Court for an offence against this Act or the regulations if the Court grants the person leave to bring the proceedings.

(1A) An appropriate regulatory authority (other than the EPA) and any person or authority referred to in section 218 may institute proceedings in the Land and Environment Court for an offence against this Act or the regulations, if the Court grants the authority leave to bring the proceedings.

(1B) Nothing in section 217 or 218 limits the operation of this section.

(2) The Land and Environment Court is not to grant leave unless satisfied that--

(a) the EPA has decided not to take any relevant action (as defined in subsection (3)) in respect of the act or omission constituting the alleged offence or has not made a decision on whether to take such action within 90 days after the person or authority requested the EPA to institute the proceedings, and

(b) the EPA has been notified of the proceedings, and

(c) the proceedings are not an abuse of the process of the Court, and

(d) the particulars of the offence disclose, without any hearing of the evidence, a prima facie case of the commission of the offence.

(3) Relevant action for the purposes of subsection (2) is not limited to the institution of criminal proceedings, but includes action under this Act to require the defendant to prevent, control, abate or mitigate any harm to the environment caused by the alleged offence or to prevent the continuance or recurrence of the alleged offence.