Environmental Protection Policies

Review of Environmental Protection (Western Swamp Tortoise Habitat) Policy 2011

The Environmental Protection (Western Swamp Tortoise Habitat) Policy 2011, which provides for the protection of habitat of the Critically Endangered Western Swamp Tortoise, is currently undergoing a statutory review by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA).

It is a legislative requirement that the Environmental Protection Policy (EPP) be reviewed unless otherwise directed by the Minister for Environment.

As part of the review of the Environmental Protection (Western Swamp Tortoise Habitat) Policy 2011, the EPA has prepared a draft Environmental Protection (Western Swamp Tortoise Habitat) Policy 2026 (WST EPP 2026).

In accordance with section 26(d) of the Environmental Protection Act 1986, the EPA invites comments from the public on the draft WST EPP 2026. The public consultation period will be open for 8 weeks from Monday 15 June. Submissions can be made through the EPA consultation hub until Monday 10 August 2026.

Please note that the current EPP remains in force until a new EPP is gazetted. The EPP guides activities within the policy area to avoid and minimise adverse impacts to the habitat of the Western Swamp Tortoise. Development and land use within the EPP area are subject to local planning schemes, land use zoning and other requirements administered by the City of Swan.

For further information, please refer to the documents below.

To receive future updates, subscribe to this page or contact: epa.communications@dwer.wa.gov.au.

On 18 March 2003 the EPP and associated Regulations for the Goldfields Residential Areas were gazetted, thereby replacing the 1992 EPP and Regulations.  A minor amendment to correct the map coordinates of the EPP was gazetted on 10 June 2003.

There has been a progressive tightening in the measure of acceptability of air quality standards since 1988. This has continued in the 2003 EPP, providing a progressive reduction in the number of calendar days the sulfur dioxide concentration of 0.2 ppm could be exceeded, from 3 in 2003 and down to 1 in 2008 and each succeeding year.

These concentrations will be managed and controlled through licences issued to sulfur dioxide emitting industries under Part V of the Environmental Protection Act 1986. Industries must monitor these concentrations and must not exceed the maximum permitted sulfur dioxide concentration. The 2003 Regulations specifies conditions that must be placed within a licence. Full compliance with the NEPM was achieved in 2008 and will continue into the future.

In 2009, the EPA released a scoping document “Discussion Paper – Review of the Environmental Protection (Goldfields Residential Areas)(Sulfur Dioxide) Policy 2003”.  This document sought to determine the issues that should be addressed if the review was undertaken.  The Discussion Paper unveiled a number of issues identified through community consultation.  The EPA reviewed the comments received and recommended to the Minister for Environment that further investigations on the air quality in the Goldfields regions are required to be undertaken prior to any amendments to the EPP.  Based on this information the EPA recommended that the EPP remain in effect until there is evidence that the EPP needs to be amended.  The Minister for Environment agreed and directed the EPA not to review the EPP and that a notice to this effect be published in the Government Gazette on 1 June 2010.

As a result of this action, the 2003 Goldfields EPP shall remain in force until otherwise directed by the Minister.

The Environmental Protection (Goldfields Residential Areas) (Sulfur Dioxide) Regulations 2003 was released on 18 March 2003.

Kwinana is a major heavy industrial area 30 km south of Perth, Western Australia. Most industry is concentrated in a strip of land about eight kilometres long bordering the Indian Ocean.

In the late 1970s emissions of sulfur dioxide from Kwinana industries caused significant pollution in nearby residential areas. The almost universal conversion to natural gas in 1984 virtually eliminated sulfur dioxide emissions associated with fuel combustion. However, with growth in demand and the cost of natural gas, plus the increase in sulfur dioxide emissions from other sources, the Environmental Protection Authority recognised the potential for the air quality around Kwinana to again become degraded and therefore established an Environmental Protection Policy (EPP) in 1992 to maintain acceptable air quality.

The Kwinana EPP was formally reviewed in 1999 and re-issued unchanged. The 1992 Regulations remain in force, and were amended in 1999 to reflect the policy title change.

The Policy defines three areas (Areas A, B and C), where:

• Area A is the area of land on which heavy industry is located;
• Area B is outside area A and is zoned for industrial purposes from time to time under a Metropolitan Region Scheme or a town planning scheme;
• Area C is beyond Areas A and B, predominantly rural and residential.

Sulfur dioxide standards and limits were set for the three areas, increasing in stringency from Area A to Area C. The most important of these with respect to controlling air quality are the standards and limits averaged over 1-hour periods. Similarly, ambient standards and limits were established for total suspended particulates. The EPP provides for a redetermination of these limits as and when required, e.g. to accommodate new industries or variations to existing industry emissions. There has been two redeterminations. The latest redetermination of April 2019 can be found here.

The Minister directed the EPA to defer the review of the EPP until December 2009, as a result of the need to resolve buffer issues in the Kwinana area; await the finalisation of the State Environmental (Ambient Air) Policy; and the need to undertake a consultation process regarding the inclusion or exclusion of particulates.

The EPA undertook consultation on the EPP via a discussion paper in June 2009 in preparation for the review. On the basis of this consultation and EPA advice, in November 2010 the Minister directed the EPA not to review the policy at this time. The EPA is of the opinion that the continuation of the current Kwinana EPP is appropriate and does not warrant conducting a statutory review.

View the Environmental Protection (Kwinana)(Atmospheric Wastes) Regulations 1992 (link takes you to the State Legislation website)

Nutrient enrichment of the Harvey Estuary has been caused by the clearing of native vegetation in the policy area and by land uses that result in nutrients, especially phosphorus, leaching into waterways in the policy area and then flowing into the Estuary. This stimulates excessive algal growth and leads to environmental deterioration.

In 1989 the Peel Inlet and Harvey Estuary System Management Strategy Stage 2 (the Strategy) was approved for implementation by the Minister for the Environment. The Strategy was developed to manage the massive algal growth in the Peel-Harvey Estuarine System caused by an increase in nutrients. The Strategies main actions were the construction of the Dawesville Channel and the implementation of a Catchment management Plan to limit the amount of phosphorus entering the estuaries from the river and drainage systems. The Peel Harvey EPP was gazetted in 1992 as a legislative framework to allow for catchment management initiatives in the policy area.

The purpose of this EPP is:

• to set out environmental quality objectives for the Estuary which if achieved will rehabilitate the Estuary and protect the Estuary from further degradation; and
• to outline the means by which the environmental quality objectives for the Estuary are to be achieved and maintained.

The Peel Inlet and Harvey Estuary System Management Strategy: Progress and Compliance by the Proponents with the Environmental Conditions set by the Minister for the Environment in 1989, 1991 and 1993 (Bulletin 1087) found the Dawesville Channel (constructed in 1994) to have been successful in improving water quality in the main body of the Peel Inlet and Harvey Estuary. However, water quality and environmental problems remained in the rivers, and in areas such as the Serpentine Lakes. The second part of the Strategy, that of catchment management to “cap” the phosphorus input to the waterways, remained an aspect of the management package that still required significant action.

As a result, in 2008, the EPA and the Australian Government prepared a Water Quality Improvement Plan that took the findings of seven supporting projects and recommended a combination of management measures to reduce phosphorus load to the Estuary from land uses within the coastal sections of the three catchments - the Serpentine, Murray and Harvey - draining to the Peel-Harvey Estuary.