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.