CTHIn ForceAct
Airports Act 1996
131BOffence resulting in serious environmental harm
Start here
Get a plain-English read of 131B
Turn the raw legal text into a practical explanation grounded in Airports Act 1996.
#### 131B Offence resulting in serious environmental harm
(1) A person commits an offence if the person engages in conduct that directly or indirectly results in environmental pollution that affects an area that consists of, or is included in, an airport site if the pollution harms, or has the potential to harm, the environment and:
(a) both:
(i) an environment strategy is in force for the airport concerned; and
(ii) the area is identified in the strategy as environmentally significant; or
(b) the effect of the pollution is, or has the potential to be:
(i) of high impact; and
(ii) irreversible; or
(c) the pollution results, or has the potential to result, in substantial harm to public health or to public safety; or
(d) the pollution results, or has the potential to result, in substantial damage to property.
Penalty: 500 penalty units.
(3) Subsection (1) applies to an act or omission of a person, even if the act or omission was not the sole cause of the pollution concerned.
(4) This section does not, by implication, limit section 132 or 133.
(5) A reference in this section to environmental pollution includes a reference to air, water or soil pollution, but does not include a reference to noise pollution.