By Automated Environmental · Last reviewed July 2026. General information for Victorian businesses — not legal advice.
An EPA notice to investigate is one of the five remedial notices EPA Victoria's authorised officers can issue under the Environment Protection Act 2017. It means EPA suspects a problem at your site and requires you to investigate potential contamination, pollution or waste by the deadline the notice sets. It doesn't order you to fix anything yet — it orders you to find out and put the answer in writing. The right response: a competent investigation, scoped to the notice, delivered on time.
Authorised officers issue remedial notices when a business isn't complying with an aspect of the Act or needs to address waste or contamination. There are five types:
The notice to investigate is the "find out" notice: the others direct action on an established problem; this one is issued when EPA has grounds to suspect one — the operative word is potential. It often follows a site attendance: officers can inspect, test or sample substances and ask for documents, and an inspection — sometimes triggered by a third-party report of a spill or odour — can be followed within days or weeks by a remedial notice. If that's how yours arrived, EPA visited your site: what happens next covers that sequence; Received an EPA notice in Victoria? is the general first-response guide.
EPA has asked a specific question and wants a defensible answer. Four things make one stand up:
The notice states what must be investigated — which part of the site, which suspected contamination, pollution or waste — and what must be reported by when. Design the work around those requirements so the report answers the notice limb for limb: too little means doing it again after the deadline; far beyond scope burns time you may not have.
EPA notices commonly direct that work be carried out by a suitably qualified person — and an investigation is only as credible as the person who designs it. If you genuinely have qualified environmental staff, you can run it in-house; most operations don't — sampling design and interpretation are specialist work. Any suitably qualified environmental consultant can do this; what matters is scoping to the notice and delivering inside your deadline.
Some questions can be answered from records, site history and observation. Many can't: for potential contamination or pollution, expect sampling and laboratory analysis — that is what turns "we believe it's fine" into evidence. The assessment should say what the results mean for risk, not just report numbers.
The output is a documented account of what was investigated, how, what was found and what it means. For suspected contamination, a preliminary site investigation (PSI) is often the right instrument: the standard first-stage site assessment, producing exactly what the notice calls for — a written, defensible record of whether a problem exists and whether further work is needed.
Not sure what EPA is asking for? Send the letter to Automated Environmental at /epa-notice/ — a consultant replies within one business day with a plain-English read of what it requires and your deadlines. Free, confidential, no obligation.
Yes — you can apply to EPA to extend the time to comply with a notice it issued (council-issued notices: ask the council). For a notice to investigate, apply at least 10 business days before the due date, with the reason, proposed changes including new timeframes, what you have already done to comply, and supporting evidence. It helps to show the change would give better long-term results, manage risks more effectively or clarify what compliance requires — or that factors beyond your control (weather, supply delays) are stopping you. EPA considers whether you are making all efforts to comply and aims to decide within 5 business days; keep complying until it tells you the notice has changed.
Notices to investigate are eligible for review (as are environmental action, improvement and prohibition notices). The path depends on who issued yours — check the notice:
You can request a stay with your application, pausing your obligation to comply until the review finishes. EPA must decide a stay request within 2 business days — if it doesn't, the stay is automatically granted; if it refuses, you keep complying. EPA must advise the outcome within 10 business days of receiving your application; hear nothing and the notice is affirmed and still binding. Disagree with the outcome? Apply to VCAT within 15 business days of receiving the decision. A review is for a notice you genuinely consider wrong — unless a stay is granted, the clock keeps running.
An investigation isn't an end in itself — EPA wants the answer so the risk gets dealt with. If it finds no significant issue, the written report is your answer to the notice; keep it. If it confirms risks, the findings must feed controls: under the general environmental duty you must minimise risks of harm to human health and the environment from pollution and waste so far as reasonably practicable, and the durable way to show that is a site-specific environmental management plan (EMP) carrying the findings through to risk assessment, controls and monitoring. Confirmed findings can also bring further EPA steps, such as another remedial notice directing clean-up. And a complied-with or revoked notice confirms you met the notice — not that EPA endorses your environmental management.
If your notice — or the one after it — directs an EMP, The EPA told you to get an EMP explains what the document must contain. Automated Environmental prepares notice-driven investigations and EMPs for Victorian businesses — fixed-fee proposals, priority turnarounds when a deadline is tight (a short-turnaround premium applies). The initial consultation is free via environmental management plans or contact, or call 1300 39 00 39.
It requires you to investigate potential contamination, pollution or waste — one of the five remedial notices authorised officers can issue under the Environment Protection Act 2017. The notice sets out what must be investigated, what must be reported and the deadline. It requires finding out and reporting, not yet cleaning up.
Yes. Apply to EPA at least 10 business days before the due date, with your reasons, proposed new timeframes, what you have already done to comply and supporting evidence. EPA aims to decide within 5 business days; keep complying until EPA tells you the notice has changed.
Yes. If an EPA or council authorised officer issued it, apply for an internal review within 10 business days of receiving it (you can also request a stay). If a delegate of EPA issued it, you apply to VCAT instead, within 15 business days. Disagreements with the internal review decision also go to VCAT, within 15 business days of receiving it.
The findings determine the next step. If no significant issue is found, the written report answers the notice. If risks are confirmed they must be managed — typically through documented site-specific controls such as an environmental management plan — and EPA can take further steps, including other remedial notices. Compliance is not EPA endorsement of your environmental management.
Related reading: Received an EPA notice in Victoria? · EPA notices explained · The EPA told you to get an EMP · EPA visited your site: what happens next
This article is general information, not legal advice. Notices carry hard deadlines — if you've received one, get advice specific to your situation promptly.