Environmental Protection Agency Act 1992
The EPA Act identifies noise as a form of environmental pollution and contains provisions for dealing with noise “which is a nuisance, or would endanger human health or damage property or harm the environment.”
The sections of the Act relevant to noise pollution are:
Section 106 – Regulations for Control of Noise This section gives the Minister for Environment, Heritage and Local Government the power to make regulations for the purpose of preventing or limiting noise. This may include imposing noise limits, either exceedance values or emission values, controlling sources of noise and the imposition of charges for noise pollution.
Section 107 – Power of Local Authority or Agency to Prevent or Limit Noise This section gives powers to local authorities or the Environmental Protection Agency to control and limit noise from any premises, process or work.
Section 108 – Noise as a Nuisance This section gives provision for local authorities, the EPA or any individual to complain to the District Court regarding noise nuisance causing unreasonable annoyance. The Court may order the offending person or body to take specific measures to limit or prevent noise pollution. It is the policy of the Council to promote a high level of environmental quality and acoustic amenity in the community by implementation of the Environmental Protection Agency Act. The EPA Act provides a method for dealing with nuisance noise in the community. It does not however, address noise pollution in the long term. The END, enacted through the Environmental Noise Regulations, is the beginning of a framework to develop long term strategic policies to combat noise pollution and protect the public from potentially harmful effects of environmental noise exposure.
