Stormwater Legislation for Tasmania - The Urban Drainage Act 2013
The
Urban Drainage Act 2013 is Tasmania's primary legislation governing the provision of urban stormwater drainage services by local councils.
The main objective of this Act is to:
protect people and property by ensuring that stormwater services, infrastructure and planning are provided so as to minimise the risk of urban flooding due to stormwater flows; and
provide for the safe, environmentally responsible, efficient and sustainable provision of stormwater services in accordance with the objectives of the resource management and planning system of Tasmania.
To achieve the objectives of the Act, the legislation provides for five key elements:
The Act provides each council with a non-delegable duty to effectively drain the urban part of its municipal area;
The Act details that each council must develop a stormwater system management plan for its municipal area;
The Act provides councils with the necessary powers to ensure the operation and protection of their stormwater management systems;
The Act describes the circumstances under which a person may be connected or disconnected from a stormwater management system; and
The Act provides councils and third party infrastructure owners with a structure for arranging for councils to access infrastructure that is owned and operated by a third party, for the purposes of providing stormwater drainage.
Stormwater Regulations Tasmania - Urban Drainage (General) Regulations 2016
The Urban Drainage Act 2013 is Tasmania's primary legislation governing the provision of urban stormwater drainage services by local councils. The Act was approved by Parliament and received Royal Assent on 19 December 2013.
During the development of the Act it was clearly identified that regulations would need to be made to provide additional information to local councils so they can effectively implement the legislation. The Urban Drainage (General) Regulations 2016 provides detail on what constitutes a "prescribed structure". This detail is necessary to permit councils to apply the powers in section 13 of the Act, which assist councils to protect their urban drainage infrastructure. Section 13 of the Act provides that a person must not permit a prescribed structure to be built on or over a stormwater easement or stormwater infrastructure unless they have the relevant council's permission.