Clive Palmer firm charged over toxic spills

CLIVE Palmer’s nickel business has been charged with six counts of environmental breaches.

Queensland Nickel, which is owned by Clive Palmer, has been charged with six counts of environmental breaches.

CLIVE Palmer’s nickel business has been charged with six counts of environmental breaches ­because of toxic sludge that has poured from his vast storage dams on the edge of Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

The Weekend Australian can reveal that Queensland Nickel, which is owned by the leader of the Palmer United Party, faces fines of up to $1.1 million for each charge if found guilty of mismanaging the hazardous contaminated water.

The refinery’s loss of tens of thousands of litres of the toxic sludge occurred earlier this year, after The Australian revealed that it posed serious risks to the natural habitat because the ponds were full and not being properly maintained.

The alleged breaches happened after the Environment Department repeatedly tried to persuade Queensland Nickel to spend money to raise the wall of the ponds to increase their capacity before last year’s wet season. Mr Palmer has previously warned that women and children would die because of the toxicity of his sludge.

A senior source said yesterday the six charges against Queensland Nickel, which Mr Palmer took over five years ago from BHP Billiton, “relate to an overflow of the (ponds) in April 2014 and the (firm’s) alleged lack of action to prevent that overflow occurring”.

“The charges also allege that Queensland Nickel breached conditions of its Environmental Authority relating to reporting requirements, operation of the seepage management system, sediment monitoring and contaminant release limits,’’ the source said.

Wilful breaches of a condition of an EA carry a maximum penalty of $1.1m for a company.

The case is expected to unfold in Townsville Magistrates Court late next month. Mr Palmer has been forced to upgrade the dams to ensure they have the capacity to manage the wet season rainfall without another mishap.

The environmental charges come as the Greens and their Queensland senator Larissa Waters lend support to a Senate probe, instigated by Mr Palmer as leader of the Palmer United Party, into Premier Campbell Newman’s government.

Mr Palmer has threatened to sue the federal environmental regulator, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, for $6.4 billion after it tried to prevent polluting discharges of the nickel refinery’s toxic sludge. A major discharge from the refinery’s ponds to the ecosystem of Halifax Bay in the World Heritage Area has been described by federal government scientists as “similar to the daily discharge of treated sewage from a city of seven million”.

Hundreds of tonnes of waste with high levels of ammonia and other metals are produced in the refinery’s nickel and cobalt processes.

The refinery is the major operating asset controlled by Mr Palmer. He has accused the Newman government of “leaking misinformation” about the operation of the refinery. He has instructed his lawyers to make numerous Right to Information requests seeking hundreds of documents about the Environment Department’s investigation of his refinery, and any contact with The Australian.