Narrabri Shire Council fined over landfill pollution

Narrabri Shire Council was fined in Narrabri Local Court on July 27 for offences under the Protection of the Environment Operations Act.

In a statement to The Courier, a council spokesman said ‘the Narrabri Shire Council accepts the penalty of $35,000 imposed by the Local Court of NSW at Narrabri regarding a reportable asbestos incident at the Narrabri Waste Management Facility.

“In late 2018, it was identified that small amounts of asbestos were present in concrete that was incorrectly disposed of and used in some of the Narrabri Waste Management Facility’s road base.

“It is not unusual for materials at a waste facility to contain traces of material such as asbestos.

“Council took precautionary steps to minimise the risk of impact to neighbours and visitors to the site, including restricted access to that part of the site, watered and sealed the road to secure the material, engaged experts to provide testing and advice, and notified the EPA.

“Independent expert testing completed at the time identified that the level of asbestos present in the site’s air and soil was below detectable and monitoring limits and not at risk of becoming airborne.

“This means that any potential health risks were extremely low,” council said.

“The EPA determined that council should have reported the matter to the EPA and implemented the Pollution Incident Response Management Plan (PIRMP) sooner under the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997.

“Council accepts the EPA’s evaluation.

“Following the incident, Council’s internal investigation and external review identified management, staff and process shortcomings, including that the existing PIRMP was not correctly followed.

“Council has implemented significant corrective actions to prevent a future incident including changes in personnel overseeing waste operations.

“The considerable steps after the incident and Council’s commitment to ongoing improvement were recognised by the court.”