The Land and Environment Court issued the fine to the
Glencore Xstrata-owned Bulga Coal Management on Wednesday, and also ordered the
company to pay the costs of the Environmental Protection Agency’s investigation
and prosecution of the case.
Hunter Valley-based Bulga Coal Management has already spent $287,000 on the
clean-up operation.
The incident was discovered by a Bulga Coal employee on
October 9, 2011.
The employee immediately took steps to stop the flow and
contain the discharge.
‘‘A clear message needs to be sent to other
companies engaging in similar operations that positive steps must be taken to
ensure water pollution does not occur,’’ Justice Pain said.
Pain also said
that Bulga Coal Management had no prior convictions for environmental pollution,
and that the company had taken precautions to ensure a similar incident will
not occur again and was unlikely to reoffend.
Bulga
Coal Management had initially pleaded not guilty to the offense, but later
changed the plea to guilty.
Earlier this year the company was acquitted of failing to report the incident immediately.
The
Court held that Bulga Coal Management’s duty to notify the EPA of the pollution
incident was only triggered once it became “subjectively” aware that the
pollution incident caused or threatened material harm to the environment, at
which point Bulga did report the incident to the EPA.
Clean-up
operations using “sucker trucks” began the day after the spill was discovered.
It
was only after clean-up began that the EPA was notified, which was alleged to
be in contravention of section 148(2) of the Protection of Environment Operations Act 1997:
Duty of person carrying on activity to notify
A person carrying
on the activity must, as soon as practicable after the person becomes aware of
the incident, notify the appropriate regulatory authority of the incident and
all relevant information about it.
Image: Newcastle Herald