EPA Victoria Enforcement Action in Preston
On 8 April 2026, EPA Victoria shut down all earthworks operations at a Preston building site and issued $6,000 in infringement notices following a severe dust and sediment pollution event that affected multiple neighbouring businesses. The enforcement action targeted Accurate Earthworks and Services Pty Ltd, the earthworks contractor on site, and the site occupier, 7even Enterprise (Preston) Pty Ltd. The dust pollution was so extensive that it drifted up to 150 metres from the site boundary, coating the interior of a nearby retro fashion store with grit and penetrating both the cool room and bathroom of an adjacent food truck operator.
The EPA’s response was triggered by 17 separate community complaints lodged over a three-day period. When officers attended the site, they found no effective dust suppression measures had been implemented and, critically, that site staff were completely unaware of any dust management plan. The issuance of a Prohibition Notice to the site occupier has legally halted all excavation, soil screening, and soil carting at the premises until two specific conditions are met: a professionally prepared dust management plan must be produced, and all soil stockpiles on the site must be formally assessed and classified by an independent expert.
For environmental practitioners working in construction, civil earthworks, and contaminated land management, this enforcement action illustrates precisely how a failure to implement basic operational controls can escalate from a nuisance complaint into a mandated regulatory process involving independent consultants, halted project timelines, and compounding financial exposure for all parties involved. The case is a practical demonstration of how the General Environmental Duty under the Environment Protection Act 2017 (Vic) operates in real construction settings.
Key details of the Preston site enforcement action
EPA Victoria issued three separate infringement notices to Accurate Earthworks and Services Pty Ltd, totalling $6,000 in penalties, for dust and sediment tracking from the Preston building site. The infringement notices were issued under the Infringements Act 2006. However, the more consequential regulatory instrument was the Prohibition Notice served on the site occupier, 7even Enterprise (Preston) Pty Ltd, which carries no fixed dollar value but imposes an indefinite operational freeze with specific compliance conditions that must be satisfied before works can legally resume.
The dust plume extended at least 150 metres from the site, which is a meaningful dispersal distance in a built-up inner-suburban setting such as Preston. At that range, particulates from an earthworks site are capable of affecting residential amenity, food handling environments, retail merchandise, and vulnerable populations including the elderly and those with respiratory conditions. The EPA’s findings confirmed that no effective dust suppression measures were in place at the time of the inspection, and that no member of the site team could produce or reference an operative dust management plan. These are fundamental control failures that directly fall under the obligations of the General Environmental Duty (GED) under section 25 of the Environment Protection Act 2017 (Vic).
The GED requires any person conducting an activity that may give rise to risks of harm to human health or the environment to understand those risks and take reasonably practicable steps to minimise them. Dust generation from excavation, screening, and soil carting is an entirely foreseeable risk on any earthworks site. The absence of a dust management plan and the absence of active suppression measures constitutes a clear failure to meet that duty. The EPA does not need to demonstrate that actual harm occurred to issue infringement notices or a Prohibition Notice under this framework.
The Prohibition Notice specifically prohibits excavating, screening, and carting soil at the premises until two conditions are satisfied. First, a professionally prepared dust management plan must be provided to the EPA. Second, all soil stockpiles on the site must be formally assessed and classified by an independent expert. The second condition is particularly significant. It introduces a mandatory contaminated land assessment obligation into what began as an operational dust management failure. If any of those stockpiles contain fill material with elevated concentrations of contaminants, the classification process will bring additional regulatory obligations into play, potentially including notification requirements and prescribed management responses under Victorian contaminated land frameworks.
Australian context: GED obligations, CEMPs, and contaminated land frameworks in Victoria and beyond
Victoria’s Environment Protection Act 2017 introduced the General Environmental Duty as a broad, proactive duty of care that applies to all persons conducting activities capable of causing harm. Unlike prescriptive licence conditions, the GED does not require a specific permit to trigger obligations. It applies to all construction and earthworks activities regardless of site size or project value. The Preston enforcement action is a direct application of GED principles to routine urban earthworks, and it reinforces that the EPA will use its full suite of powers, including Prohibition Notices, to enforce compliance where site management has clearly fallen short.
Construction Environmental Management Plans are the primary operational tool used to demonstrate GED compliance on development sites across Australia. In Victoria, CEMPs are commonly required as conditions of planning permits issued under the Planning and Environment Act 1987 and are referenced in EPA guidance on the management of construction activities.
References and related sources
- Primary source: www.epa.vic.gov.au
- epa.vic.gov.au
- EPA Victoria
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This is an iEnvi Machete news summary. Prepared by iEnvi to summarise the source article for contaminated land, groundwater, remediation, approvals and site risk professionals.
Published: 09 Apr 2026
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