In an important case considering the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal’s powers to issue stay orders under the state’s revised Environment Protection Act, big global meat products company Van Hessen has been denied a stay of a prohibition notice that will potentially cost it up to $200,000 per week and result in the loss of 30 full time jobs.
A court has fined Nyrstar $35,000 over an acid spill at its Port Pirie smelter, while SA Health says lead levels in children living near the smelter are increasing.
Volkswagen has failed to convince the Full Federal Court that a $125 million penalty imposed on it for cheating on air pollution tests was manifestly excessive.
There is one main reason why 45 days of air pollution didn't lead to higher penalties for four companies that own the Hazelwood coal mine, according to Ashurst partner Rob Jamieson.
The owners of the Hazelwood brown coal mine have been fined $1.94 million for a major 2014 fire that lasted 45 days and blanketed the Latrobe Valley in smoke and ash.
A chemical company must pay a $60,000 penalty and significant EPA costs after its attempt at odour neutralisation backfired and led to the release of a toxic gas.
The operator of Victoria's Hazelwood brown coal mine has been convicted under environmental and health and safety legislation over a mine fire lasting 45 days.
GrainCorp has told a court it spent more than $2 million on investigations and new systems after discovering it had misinterpreted a consultant's advice and breached its environmental licence for two years.
Failing to prevent serious odour problems when building a WestConnex interchange on an old Dial-A-Dump landfill site has cost a CIMIC subsidiary almost half a million dollars.