There is about 12000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate (about 4 times the amount involved in Beirut) stored just a few kilometres from the centre of Newcastle and houses are just 800 metres away. If that went up there would be no more Newcastle. The people who live in North Stockland have been wanting the company to move the plant where it is produced and stored, closer to the mines where the stuff is used to blast out coal.
Orica says their stockpile is perfectly safe but they were responsible for a leak of the toxic chemical, hexavalent chromium and three leaks of arsenic into the Hunter River and a State Govt committee has been told that the company had breached its licence 130 times over a decade. Orica also released mercury vapours which exceeded the licensed levels when they had a plant at Botany and caused groundwater pollution via toxic waste storage in a number of sites around Sydney.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2020-08-07 09:14 pm (UTC)Orica says their stockpile is perfectly safe but they were responsible for a leak of the toxic chemical, hexavalent chromium and three leaks of arsenic into the Hunter River and a State Govt committee has been told that the company had breached its licence 130 times over a decade. Orica also released mercury vapours which exceeded the licensed levels when they had a plant at Botany and caused groundwater pollution via toxic waste storage in a number of sites around Sydney.