The ACT government more than doubled the number of inspections for erosion control it conducts on Canberra's building sites in the wake of a scathing audit report earlier this year.
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Officials from the territory's Environmental Protection Authority told a Legislative Assembly committee hearing on Tuesday the authority had conducted some 775 such inspections in 2017-18, a 125 per cent increase on the 344 inspections completed in 2016-17.
In February, the government's lax approach to regulating erosion and sediment controls on Canberra's building sites was highlighted in an audit report, which also found taxpayers had to foot the bill for $750,000 of works to fix such problems at Coombs pond.
The audit also found despite a government consultant identifying the problems in 2013, including small block sizes leading to a lack of storage on sites for builders, and uncoordinated or irregular enforcement, little had been done to address issues in the five years since.
Auditors were also told by staff at the city services directorate and Suburban Land Agency that due to stronger enforcement of sediment and erosion in Queanbeyan, builders were being more careful to manage such problems in NSW compared to the territory.
The authority's annual reports further show the 344 inspections conducted in 2016-17 on large building sites greater than 0.3 hectares, was the smallest number of such inspections it had conducted in the past five years.
In 2015-16, the authority conducted 460 such inspections, with 669 conducted in 2014-15 and 514 inspections completed in 2013-14.
Chief Minister's deputy director-general Dave Peffer told the committee the inspections had been completed in the midst of a building boom in Canberra where the government was making between 4000 and 6000 building approvals a year.
He said the building activity and sediment run-off and erosion from building sites in the city was a key activity that could affect waterways and contribute to things like blue-green algae blooms seen in the region's lakes.
"Poorly managed building sites can cause these issues, so the [authority] has had particular focus on activities engagement and enforcement," he said.
"In previous years the focus has been on larger sites but recognising the volume of green-field development that is occurring, the EPA and its inspectors have been also looking at these smaller residential sites."
Environmental Protection Authority's Narelle Sargent told the committee the main focus of the inspections had been on new land estates at Taylor, Denman Prospect and Ginninderry, and even small residential sites could have large impacts on waterways if they did not have sediment and erosion controls in place.
She said the authority was also conducting joint inspections on work sites with other agencies including WorkSafe ACT and city services staff to look at the range of issues the government needed to regulate on construction sites.
Mr Sargent also said the authority was considering identifying triggers for when specific issues could be assessed on sites, particularly for "mum and dad" builders, to help them ensure they had the right controls in place and were aware of best practice on the issue.
