Port Adelaide Salvage appeals EPA transport ban over illegal dumping
A Port Adelaide salvage company is appealing a three-year ban on transport for illegal dumping in Houghton and Highbury last year.
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A northern suburbs demolition and waste contractor is appealing a three-year Environment Protection Authority ban for operating two illegal waste depots in Adelaide’s northeast.
EPA delegate Peter Dolan informed Port Adelaide Salvage on October 1 last year the authority was suspending the company’s authority to transport waste following breaches of the Environment Protection Act.
Port Adelaide Salvage was fined $37,500 in July last year for operating an illegal dump in Highbury between August and November, 2012, and another in Houghton.
Meanwhile, the EPA is investigating Port Adelaide Salvage, which removes material from home demolitions, over the alleged unlawful disposal of waste at two locations in Sedan, 100km east of Adelaide.
Mr Dolan said the company was transporting asbestos that was not “appropriately wrapped or sealed”, breaching the requirements of its authority.
In court documents seen by The Messenger, Mr Dolan said Port Adelaide Salvage was putting the public’s health at risk by unsafely transporting friable and non-friable asbestos.
“Given the circumstances of your previous and ongoing offending... the suspension of the authorisation is necessary to protect the public and the environment from the continued risk that the company presents,” Mr Dolan wrote.
Port Adelaide Salvage appealed two EPA clean-up notices at Sedan in September, 2018.
Consultant KEMM Environmental was then hired for a clean-up plan, but “no work has been done to clean up asbestos containing waste in Sedan”, documents show.
“Uncontained asbestos waste at a location where it can be exposed to fire and wind and thereby become airborne is clearly dangerous,” Mr Dolan wrote
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He said “little regard has been paid by (PAS) to the requirements of its authorisation”.
In a statement to The Messenger, an EPA spokeswoman said neither Port Adelaide Salvage or its director Maurizio Corsaro ever held a licence to operate a waste depot at Highbury or Houghton.
“Investigations into the illegal landfill sites at Sedan are ongoing,” the spokeswoman said.
However, Mr Corsaro submitted to the EPA in June last year he did not believe the company was acting unlawfully.
The company lodged an appeal in the Environment, Resources and Development Court on November 29 last year.
It is disputing it is responsible for waste dumped at Sedan and states it has voluntarily undertaken work to assist with a clean-up.
A directions hearing has been set for January 30 in the ERD following a conference hearing on Tuesday.