Environmental Breaches by Animal and Fish Processing Company Penalised

Ridley AgriProducts Pty Ltd is a subsidiary of the ASX listed Ridley Corporation Ltd, which describes itself as Australia’s largest commercial provider of animal nutrition solutions.

The subsidiary company has an environmental protection licence for its Maroota premises, a suburb to the north-west of Sydney.  Following investigation and prosecution by the NSW Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the NSW Land and Environment Court has recently penalised the company for two breaches of its environment protection licence. The company was ordered to pay a penalty of $105000 to the Environmental Trust. It was also required to pay the EPA's costs of almost $85000 and publicise the judgment in the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian Financial Review and the Rouse Hill Times.

The company processes animal and fish waste into oil and protein meal generating wastewater. Following a failure to operate its pumps properly, wastewater overflowed into the Marramarra National Park in two separate incidents in 2017. Levels of ammonia found in the waste contained concentrations which would cause damage to aquatic life.

The company pleaded guilty to the charges of failing to operate the wastewater management pumps correctly, resulting in potentially damaging overflows into the national park. Since the incidents, the company have installed new pumps and improved monitoring processes.

The NSW Land and Environment Court was established in 1980 to hear environmental, development and planning issues. Its growing importance has mirrored that of environmental issues to everyone’s lives.

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