Australian Court Fines Meat Processor for Water Pollution

Cargill Australia Limited has been fined $37,500 and ordered to pay $30,000 in costs following an effluent spill from a burst pipe in early 2006 at the company's abattoir in Wagga Wagga.

The company was sentenced on 13 June 2007, in Australia's Land and Environment Court after it pleaded guilty to polluting waters, an offence under the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997.

The company operates a livestock slaughtering and rendering plant in an industrial estate near Wagga Wagga. On 30 January 2006, a pipeline carrying wastewater from the plant's operations cracked. About 20,000 litres of wastewater escaped from the cracked pipeline. The wastewater entered the council's stormwater system and discharged into the top of a wetland system constructed by the council.

The Court heard how after the pipe burst, primary-treated effluent made up of cattle wash water, wash down from the killing floor, and fats from rendered wastes spurted out of the ground and flowed hundreds of meters to a stormwater drainage system. Additionally, the Court heard that the pipeline had ruptured on four previous occasions and the company knew of the need to fix the pipeline up to five years prior to the incident.

In determining the appropriate penalty, Justice Jagot took into account the fact that the company was taking practical measures to prevent the potential for harm to the environment by reason of water pollution. Regardless, Department of Environment and Climate Change Director General Lisa Corbyn said Justice Jagot ultimately found that the company seriously misjudged the risk of water pollution presented by the pipeline that had burst and noted the company had two prior convictions for environmental offences.

"The abattoir which processes 1200 head of cattle per day, holds an environment protection licence requiring it to meet strict conditions to prevent pollution."

"Large meat processing plants produce waste in the form of blood and animal by-products and effluent, which can have a serious impact on the environment if they escape from on-site treatment works."

"After this incident the company had to flush and pump out the wetland ponds and scrape the ground over which the effluent flowed," Ms Corbyn said.

Since the incident Cargill has spent over $270,000 on cleaning up the spill, replacing the burst pipeline and pumps and installing on-site stormwater controls.