Recycling plant under environment orders after causing 140,000 litres of water contamination

A metal recycling firm is under EPA orders after its waste material combusted, sending plumes of smoke across the city and leading to the contamination of 140,000 litres of water.

Rocherlea warehouse fire. Picture: Northern Tasmania Emergency Media

A METAL recycling firm in Launceston, which was penalised last month after one of its workers fell seven metres and suffered catastrophic injuries, has again come under fire – this time for water contamination.

In February last year, a fire broke out in a shed for a “shredder floc”, or waste residue, at Recycal Pty Ltd’s Rocherlea site.

The fire sent plumes of smoke across Launceston, with the blaze difficult to control and causing millions of dollars in damage.

According to a newly-published Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (TASCAT) decision, the shredder floc shed was full to capacity at the time.

Rocherlea warehouse fire. Picture: Alex Treacy

The Tasmania Fire Service attended the blaze, applying a large volume of water – some 12 million litres – onto the shredder floc stockpile over 24 hours.

Water used in the firefighting efforts flowed out of the shed and through stockpiles of scrap metal, flowing onto the neighbouring farm property Landfall and into an irrigation dam near the Tamar River.

Landfall’s owner arranged for a temporary dam to be built to stop contaminated water entering the irrigation dam, a huge job that took six days.

Later that month, the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) issued a notice to Recycal, directing it to dispose of the 140,000 litres contaminated water and sediment.

After the conditions in that notice were met, the EPA subsequently sent out a notice requiring Recycal to prevent all run-off from discharging from its site, with a further notice adding a number of land management conditions to the company’s planning permit.

Late last year, Recycal fought the subsequent notices in an appeal, arguing variously the requests were unreasonable, unnecessary and “unjustifiably onerous and expensive”.

TASCAT deputy president Richard Grueber and member Helen Locher noted one of the new conditions was for Recycal to engage a person to develop a floc sampling and monitoring plan.

David Casteller, Tasmania Fire Service acting district officer, at the Recycal Rocherlea fire. Picture: Alex Treacy

They said shredder floc contained shredded metals, rubber, plastic, fibres, dirt, glass and fines, and was highly combustible – finding the condition was “reasonable and appropriate” to address the risk of environmental harm or nuisance.

While varying the notice to give Recycal more time to comply with certain conditions, TASCAT ultimately affirmed the EPA notices, finding none of them were “unnecessary, unreasonable or serve no useful purpose”.

In December last year, Recycal pleaded guilty to unsafe work practices after an employee fell seven metres from an upturned shipping container, also at its Rocherlea site, leaving him in a coma for more than two weeks.

The company was fined $85,000 in the Launceston Magistrates Court.

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