It takes nearly 50 days for the NSW environment watchdog to decide if it will send out a warning letter in response to a water pollution incident, a highly-critical review has found.
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The NSW Environment Protection Authority has come under fire from the state's auditor-general over "important gaps" concerning the regulation of water pollution in drinking catchments and illegal solid waste disposal.
In a report released on Thursday, Auditor-General Margaret Crawford says the "deficiencies" risk harming the environment and human health.
The auditor-general also labelled many of the EPA's policies and procedures as outdated, inconsistent and used "optionally as guidelines".
The EPA was accused of failing to "effectively detect" breaches or non-compliance.
Thursday's report reveals it takes the authority nearly 50 days on average to send out an advisory or warning letter in response to a water pollution incident.
Nearly half of all EPA-licensed premises are authorised to discharge substances into water, but the report found the agency doesn't measure the levels of pollutants that are being released.
The environmental watchdog "lacks an effective process" to monitor and analyse pollutant concentrations, the report states.
The auditor-general raised specific concerns about the water quality at Lake Burragorang which stores much of Sydney's drinking water.
A 2016 audit found the lake experienced "worsening water quality" over the past 20 years from increased salinity levels.
"The salinity levels were nearly twice as high as in other storages in the Sydney drinking water catchment," the report said.
It separately found the EPA failed to achieve the targets set by the NSW government for a 30 per cent reduction in large-scale dumping from 2011 to 2016 in Sydney, the Illawarra, Hunter and Central Coast.
Instead, the incidences of such dumping more than doubled.
The EPA says greater public awareness and reporting are behind the jump rather than increased illegal dumping activity.
The report recommends the EPA update its policies and procedures, conduct mandatory site inspections and implement procedures to assess non-compliances.
It should also develop strategies to improve and maintain water quality in Lake Burragorang.
In response, the NSW EPA welcomed the audit report and accepted the recommendations in full.
The authority has already started implementing improvements to several issues raised, a spokeswoman told AAP on Thursday.
Australian Associated Press
