Glossary
Glossary of Terms
Accountable party - The accountable party is the holder of the licence. There may be more than one accountable party for a licence (for example in cases of joint ventures or partnerships).
Activity - An industrial, agricultural or commercial activity or an activity of any other nature whatever (including the keeping of a substance or an animal).
Actual load - Annual mass of emissions of an assessable pollutant (in kilograms).
Administrative fee - Licence fee payable to EPA for regulation of a licensee's activities, determined by the number of fee units the activity attracts.
Agreed load - Future load goal for an assessable pollutant, committed to under a Load Reduction Agreement and used to calculate fee reductions.
Anniversary date - The anniversary date is the annual anniversary of the date of issue of the licence.
Annual load limit - Annual limit or cap on a licensee's discharge of an assessable pollutant (in kilograms).
Annual return - Report on pollutant loads, monitoring and complaints, and statement of compliance.
Approved methods and guidance for the modelling and assessment of air pollutants in NSW - This document lists the sampling and analysis methods to be used and provides guidance for the modelling and assessment of air pollutants from stationary sources.
Approved methods for the sampling and analysis of water pollutants in New South Wales - This document lists the methods to be used when complying with a requirement to test for the presence or concentration of matter in water.
Assessable load - Least of actual, weighted or agreed loads for an assessable pollutant.
Assessable pollutant - For the purposes of load-based licensing, an assessable pollutant is an air pollutant or water pollutant specified in relation to an activity listed in Schedule 1 of the POEO General Regulation.
Catchment - The area in which water (from rainfall or otherwise) collects, to form the supply of a river, stream or drainage area.
Compliance cost - Cost of complying with regulatory requirements.
Critical zone weighting - Weighting factor given to pollutants discharged to sensitive environments or areas under stress from pollution.
Emission factor - Estimated emission rate for an assessable pollutant, used to calculate annual pollutant loads as permitted by the Load Calculation Protocol.
Emissions trading scheme - A scheme that allows the exchange of pollution entitlements and responsibilities within a limited area, in recognition of licensees' different capacities for and costs of pollution abatement.
Environmental/compliance audits - Periodic evaluation of a licensee's activity/ies to check compliance with licence conditions and other legal requirements.
Environment protection notice - Clean-up, prevention or prohibition notice issued by the EPA under Chapter 4 of the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997.
Environmental Planning Instrument - Statutory plan or policy created under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, aimed at controlling the scale and nature of development and its impact on the environment.
Fee rate threshold - Reasonably achievable discharge level (expressed in kilograms) above which pollutant fee rate doubles (see how to calculate fee rate thresholds).
Flow-optimised discharge - Discharge of pollutants during high river flow for maximum dilution.
FRT factor - Factor (expressed in kilograms of pollutant emitted per unit of economic activity) used to establish an assessable pollutant's fee rate threshold.
Hunter River Salinity Trading Scheme - An emissions trading scheme operating in the Hunter River catchment of NSW that limits total salt discharges - the limit is varied daily to match river flow conditions and individual discharges are shared within the limit according to holdings of tradeable credits.
Licensee - Holder of a licence.
Licence application - An application for the issue, transfer, surrender or variation of a licence.
Licence condition - A condition of a licence which can include limit conditions, volume and mass limit conditions, monitoring and recording conditions, reporting and general conditions or special conditions.
Licence review - The Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997 requires that the EPA review a licence regularly after the issue of the licence to ensure all conditions are appropriate (see POEO Act Part 3.6).
Licence transfer - The transfer of a licence to another accountable party (see POEO Act s 54).
Licence variation - The EPA or the holder of the licence may seek to vary a licence (including the conditions of a licence). A variation includes the attaching of a condition, the substitution of a condition, the omission of a condition or the amendment of a condition (see POEO Act s 58).
Load based fees - Licence fees that are based on the amount of particular pollutants that are discharged by an activity. Load-based fees do not have to be paid for all activities.
Load Based Licensing - (LBL) A scheme that sets limits on the total pollution emitted by licensees and links their licence fees to these emissions - the lower the emissions the lower the fee.
Load based Licence Technical Review Panel - Body that advises the EPA on the contents of the Load Calculation Protocol.
Load Calculation Protocol - Instruction manual for licensees that sets out acceptable methods for calculating assessable pollutant loads.
Load Reduction Agreement - Agreement between a licensee and the EPA to reduce the licensee's pollutant load by a future date. Licensee pays a reduced fee based on the reduced load during the agreement, freeing funds for pollution abatement.
Mass balance calculation - Quantification of difference in flow of materials into and out of a process, used to calculate emissions.
Mobile plant licence - A licence for non-premises based scheduled activities carried out by mobile plant.
National Pollutant Inventory - National reporting and public information system on emissions to air, land and water.
Offset schemes - Pollution reduction initiatives that allow a licensee to compensate for their premises-based emissions by counteracting or reducing equivalent emissions elsewhere at lower cost.
On-line fee calculator - An online tool that enables calculation of current licence fees and forecasting of future fees under various pollution reduction scenarios.
Pollutant fee unit - The dollar value used in the load fee calculation formula for any licence fee period (as listed in clause 6 of the Protection of the Environment (General) Regulation 1998).
Pollutant load fee - Amount of money owing for discharges of assessable pollutants (part of annual environment protection licence fees).
Pollutant weighting - Factor that reflects a pollutant's harmfulness (see a list of pollutant weighting factors).
Premises-based licence - A licence to authorise the carrying out of scheduled development work, scheduled activities or to control the carrying out of non-scheduled activities for the purpose of regulating water pollution.
Revocation - The EPA may revoke a licence if, for example, a condition of the licence has been contravened or fees have not been paid (see POEO Act s 79).
Scheduled Activity - An activity listed in Schedule 1 of the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997.
Scheduled development work - Work at any premises at which scheduled activities are not carried on that is designed to enable scheduled activities to be carried on at the premises.
Source monitoring - Recording of volume and concentration of emissions from premises, as specified in the Load Calculation Protocol.
Statement of compliance - A component of the annual return relating to compliance with the conditions of a licence.
Status - The status of a licence can be "issued" when the licence is in force, "surrendered" when the licence has been surrendered by the licensee and is no longer in force, or "revoked" when the licence has been cancelled by the EPA (see POEO Act s 79).
Surrender - A licence may, on the written application of the holder of the licence, be surrendered with the written approval of the EPA (see POEO Act s 80).
POEO Act - Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997 - sets out NSW environmental regulatory framework and determines need for licence.
Transfer - The transfer of a licence to another accountable party (see POEO Act s 54).
Variation - The EPA or the holder of the licence may seek to vary a licence (including the conditions of a licence). A variation includes the attaching of a condition, the substitution of a condition, the omission of a condition or the amendment of a condition (see POEO Act s 58).
Waste Transporter licence - A licence covering transport of various types of hazardous, industrial or liquid waste or used tyres.
Weighted load - Where the actual load is discounted in recognition of measures to reduce the environmental harm of emissions without necessarily reducing the quantity of emissions.