A Rutherford business is $100,000 out of pocket after it was left to clean up an oil spill.
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Fulton Hogan owns the land where the spill occurred and reported it to the NSW Environmental Protection Authority, but is adamant it did not cause the pollution.
However, because the EPA was unable to identify the culprit and thus follow through to conviction, Fulton Hogan cannot be reimbursed for the clean up it dutifully reported at the rear of its asphalt plant in July.
Just how the 2500 litres of oil wound up in a lagoon on Stony Creek remains a mystery and is a bone of contention.
Especially when the penalty for corporations that pollute a waterway can be as much as $1 million.
“Analysis of samples collected following the spill were inconclusive and a source could not be identified,” an EPA spokesman said.
“The EPA required Fulton Hogan, the owner of the land where the spill occurred, to carry out a clean-up of the affected area, at considerable expense to the company.”
Fulton Hogan discovered the spill behind Gardiner Street on July 14.
NSW Fire and Rescue crews from Telarah, Maitland and East Maitland, as well as a Hazmat vehicle from Newcastle, responded to incident.
“To date, we have invested over $100,000 through direct and indirect costs associated with the clean-up within our property,” Fulton Hogan general manager Paul De Britt said.
“We are disappointed that no one has owned up to the spill.”
The case was still active in August when EPA officers put businesses on notice that they would invest significant resources to find the source. But the Mercury only discovered the investigation had been closed, without a breakthrough, when it sought an update from the EPA last week.
Mr De Britt said Fulton Hogan had lived up to its responsibilities from the start to finish.
“As a member of the Rutherford community we believe that we must all work together to protect the environment, and this [clean up] was one way we could help,” he said.
“We support all efforts by the community and government regulatory authorities to hold the responsible party accountable.”
The site has now been cleaned to the EPA’s satisfaction. The EPA was unable to determine the source of the August 2014 spill either.