74EInvestigation notice

74E Investigation notice

(1)  If the Director reasonably believes that an area of land is or may be a contaminated site, he or she may issue an investigation notice for the purpose of determining one or more of the following:

(a) whether the area of land is a contaminated site;

(b) the type of pollutant concerned;

(c) the extent of the pollution caused by the pollutant;

(d) the possibility of the pollutant escaping from the area of land and affecting another area of land or a watercourse or body of water;

(e) the extent of environmental harm caused, being caused or that may be caused by the pollution;

(f) whether the pollutant is being appropriately managed.

(2)  The Director may serve an investigation notice in respect of an area of land on any person the Director knows or reasonably believes is, or is likely to be, wholly or partly responsible for causing or possibly causing that area of land to be a contaminated site.

(3)  For the purposes of subsection (2) and without limiting that subsection, an owner, occupier or person in charge, or former owner, occupier or person in charge, of an area of land (the "pollutant source land") may be taken to be responsible for causing or possibly causing the pollutant source land, or another area of land, in respect of which the investigation notice is issued to be a contaminated site if he or she, while such an owner, occupier or person in charge, in the opinion of the Director –

(a) knew, or suspected or reasonably should have suspected, that there was or possibly was in, on or under the pollutant source land a pollutant in a concentration greater than the background concentration; and

(b) allowed or is likely to have allowed, or possibly allowed or possibly is likely to have allowed, the pollutant to escape or be discharged, emitted or released into, on or under the pollutant source land or that other area of land.

(4)  The Director may serve an investigation notice in respect of an area of land on the owner of the area of land who is not or is not likely to be responsible for causing or possibly causing that area of land to be a contaminated site if –