Sphere Healthcare: Medical manufacture cops $360,000 fine after turning Clinches Pond toxic
A manufacturer’s rush to take advantage of the demand for hand sanitiser led it to spilling thousands of litres of ethanol into a southwest Sydney pond, turning it toxic.
Liverpool
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A pharmaceutical manufacturer has been fined $360,000 after a fire at its factory led to 31,500L of ethanol spilling into a pond at Moorebank, setting the surface on fire.
The Land and Environment Court ruling revealed Sphere Healthcare started sourcing ethanol in bulk in March 2020 to make hand sanitiser and improperly stored it at its Church St factory, also used to make infant formula.
When a fire broke out on July 9, 2020 the plastic drums filled with ethanol caught alight, melted, and spilt directly into stormwater drains.
The ethanol then flowed to nearby Clinches Pond, where blue flames were seen burning on the water, dead fish and eels floated to the surface, and a rancid smell was picked up by locals.
When the ethanol biodegraded in the pond it lowered the oxygen levels causing the fish to choke to death. By July 24, 2020, one witness had seen hundreds of dead fish in the pond.
Sphere Healthcare paid for the removal of almost 1.5 million litres of contaminated water from the lake as well as a large volume of dead fish and eels, while 250,000L of contaminated water was removed from stormwater pits under the facility.
Environment Protection Authority (EPA) director metro west James Goodwin said the company should have shown more care storing highly flammable liquids.
“The consequences of not putting in any form of spillage containment led to a very serious water pollution event that was catastrophic for the nearby pond and a clear health and safety risk for all residents living nearby,” Mr Goodwin said.
The clean-up alone cost Sphere Healthcare $450,000 - when fines and investigation costs were added the fire cost about $800,000.
“Doing the right thing by the environment and community is more than just a feel-good measure, it’s a sound business decision,” Mr Goodwin said.
Sphere Healthcare is no longer operating, but at the time was run by Karl (Qing) Ye, the sole director.
In August 2019 the company was placed in administration and on December 9, 2019 a Deed of Company Arrangement allowed for Sphere to be acquired by GMP Pharmaceuticals.
GMP then nominated another business, Yes Family 2, to acquire the shares instead.
Mr Ye was the owner of GMP, one of three shareholders in Yes Family 2, and the sole director of AUNEW Group Holdings, which employed senior management at Sphere.
Tina Dong, operations manager and Lakhvinder Singh, general manager, both left the company before the spill, according to the ruling, which said that Vincent Cai, the company’s deputy general manager, orked there until ‘at least’ the day of the fire.
In an affidavit supplied to the court, Mr Ye said he was “truly sorry that such an unfortunate and horrific accident occurred”.
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