The Queensland Environment Department has issued an Environmental Protection Order (EPO) to the former chief executive of Linc Energy, Peter Bond, ordering him to clean up the site of the company's controversial underground gas project near Chinchilla.

Key points: Peter Bond has been ordered to decommission the plant

Peter Bond has been ordered to decommission the plant The EPO also covers the rehabilitation soil and dams at the site

The EPO also covers the rehabilitation soil and dams at the site It is the first time an EPO has been issued under news Queensland laws

Linc Energy, whose creditors this week voted to liquidate the company, has already been committed to stand trial on five charges of unlawfully and wilfully causing serious environmental harm at and around its underground coal gasification plant.

It is believed to be the biggest environmental prosecution in Queensland's history.

The EPO was issued to Mr Bond yesterday and it orders him to decommission the plant and rehabilitate soil and dams at the site.

The EPO was enforced under Queensland's new Chain of Responsibility laws, which allow the Government to pursue company executive officers over the clean-up of the environment, even if their companies have been wound up.

The order also requires a bank guarantee from Mr Bond, who was the founder of Linc Energy and the company's chief executive until 2014.

Environment Minister Steven Miles said it was the first time the new powers had been used since the Queensland Parliament unanimously passed the laws "to protect taxpayers from having to fund clean-up costs if a licensed business failed to meet its rehabilitation obligations".

"The stronger environmental laws give Queensland's environment regulator additional powers to ensure the former Linc Energy site is rehabilitated," Dr Miles said.

"Decommissioning the dams is a crucial part of the long-term strategy regarding odour sources, and is a necessary rehabilitation step."

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Mr Bond has 10 business days to apply to the Environment Department for a review of the EPO. He can also appeal to the state's Land Court.

Comment has been sought from Mr Bond, but last week he told the ABC he was happy to rehabilitate the Chinchilla site.

"If that's what they want, we'll do it. Or are they more interested in playing the man?" he said.

Mr Bond remains one of the company's largest shareholders with a reported 21 per cent stake.

Linc Energy was once worth $2 billion, but was valued at just $US15 million when its Singapore-listed shares last traded in late March.

Former Linc employees are among the 155 creditors who are owed $320 million.

The company liquidator says there are five potential businesses interested in buying Linc's assets and that company employees should receive what they are owed.