Environmental Protection Agency formally investigating Recycal fire at Bridgewater
A Bridgewater scrap metal recycling firm has been served a notice by the Environmental Protection Agency as they investigate a major fire at the premises. LATEST >>
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UPDATE, 5.30pm February 8:
Scrap metal recycling firm Recycal will be investigated by the Environment Protection Authority after the company’s Bridgewater operation was the centre of a major blaze on Monday.
Tasmania Fire Services requested EPA officers assess and provide advice on managing potential environmental issues caused by the fire onsite.
Multiple governing bodies including the EPA, Brighton Council, SES and a local contractor tried to minimise the amount of water used to fight the fire that ran in nearby waterways, including the Jordan River.
The EPA has announced a formal investigation into the circumstances and impact of the fire to determine whether Recycal had breached any environmental laws.
“The incident may have involved breaches of the Environmental Management and Pollution Control Act 1994,” an EPA spokesperson said.
Recycal have been issued with a notice to “cease acceptance and removal of any material” from the Bridgewater location by Feburary 21.
The company has been approached for comment.
Inside the troubled past of recycle blaze firm
The company at the centre of a major blaze at a scrap metal yard on Monday has been at the centre of similar major incidents within Tasmania and interstate.
Recycal Pty Ltd’s operations were the scene of an industrial fire which sent acrid smoke into the air at Bridgewater.
Despite fire crews battling flames and thick smoke 10m high, the company was still open for business on Tuesday morning.
Recycal managing director Doug Rowe said the fire caused no damage to the business.
“The fire in Brighton was someone dropping a car when told not to with over 40 litres of fuel still in it and a battery, a small fire,” he said.
“The fire personnel complimented the staff on the fine job they did on site.
“All the staff are fine and at work.”
Tasmania Police confirmed the fire was accidental and investigations into the cause were continuing.
Monday’s fire is the latest in a long list of incidents for the company.
Nearly a year ago to the day, a massive fire broke out at its scrap metal facility in Launceston on February 7, 2022.
Firefighters struggled to extinguish the blaze at the Rocherlea site because of the high level of combustible material.
The Tasmania Fire Service poured a large volume of water – about 12 million litres – on a pile of highly combustible floc which contained shredded metals, rubber, plastic, fibres, dirt, glass and fine metal fragments, known as fines.
After the Launceston fire, an irrigation dam near the Tamar River on Landfall, a neighbouring farm property, was subsequently contaminated after the water used by firefighters to extinguish the blaze flowed from the shed on to the property.
Mr Rowe said the Launceston fire could have been deliberately lit.
“We have carried out an internal investigation and we have stepped up security at Rocherlea with a static guard on site 24/7,” he said.
“We plead with all those wanting to recycle their old car bodies to drain the fuel before bringing them in for recycling.
“We don’t take cars with fuel, and we don’t take gas bottles with gas.”
A recent Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (TASCAT) decision found the shed involved in the fire was full to capacity at the time.
Recycal was ordered to dispose of the 140,000 litres contaminated water and sediment by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) after the fire and the company complied.
But subsequence notices required the scrap metal recycling company to prevent all run-off from discharging from its site and comply with a number of land management conditions – which include developing a floc sampling and monitoring plan.
Recycal fought the notices, arguing on appeal that the requests were “unjustifiably onerous and expensive”. But TASCAT affirmed the EPA notices and found none of the requests were “unnecessary, unreasonable or serve no useful purpose”.
The company has also been accused of stockpiling batteries and airbag detonators at its Melbourne site at Ringwood, in November 2020.
An investigation was announced after information, including photographs, had been provided by an anonymous source.
An Environmental Protection Authority spokesman told News Corp “mixed battery waste” had been found at the site.
Recycal also has faced court over an industrial incident at its Launceston plant.
In December last year, Recycal Pty Ltd pleaded guilty to unsafe practices which led a worker to fall 7m at its Launceston operations.
Site supervisor Brett Rowe and the fall victim were the only two men on-site when the incident occurred at the Rocherlea facility on June 30, 2019, a court heard.
The victim fell after he used a work lift to climb on top of an upended shipping container to latch it shut after it was filled with scrap metal.
Instead he fell and suffered catastrophic injuries and was in a coma for more than two weeks.
Launceston Magistrate Sharon Cure fined the company a global sentence of $85,000 with convictions recorded on December 12.
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