ASBG responded to the EPA's Environmental Guidelines: Publication of Monitoring Data which was legislated under the Protection of the Environment Legislation Amendment Act 2011. Under this legislation  Environment Protection Licence (EPL) holders with websites must publish their monitoring data or provide data to the public on request.

The Guidelines provide details of what is required in terms of presentation of monitoring data.  A key concern is the need for all the underlying data from an EPL  holding site.  Provision of such details, the explanation of why 'limits' can be legally exceeded due to measurement and other reasons will cause considerable confusion for the public and the media.  This will make the EPA's job of protecting the environment from a scientific basis more difficult.  ASBG considers exception reports should be sufficient to identify the issues the vast bulk of the public wishes to know. 

Attachments:

ASBG's Submission on Publication of Monitoring data

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