The NSW EPA has withdrawn an allegation of land pollution by Du Pont, after a court accepted company arguments that any off-site escape of herbicide from its Sydney factory might have occurred outside the 'charge period'.
Changes to national legislation that regulate the use of agricultural and veterinary chemicals will for the first time mean that they must undergo a re-registration process, bringing Australia into line with other developed countries.
Environment ministers have largely endorsed the recommendations of a review that concludes the process for setting nationally-consistent environment standards is inefficient, overly-constrained and ripe for reform.
Efforts by WWF to ban the use of diuron in the Great Barrier Reef catchment have failed, with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal ruling it lacks jurisdiction to review the merits of a decision by the agvet chemicals regulator to permit restricted application by sugarcane growers.
Tasmania's Supreme Court has overturned a planning tribunal ruling that the EPA could not direct a business to put in place containment measures for hazardous chemicals.
The temporary shut-down of Orica's Kooragang Island plant after a hexavalent chromium discharge cost the company $90m, according to half-year results issued today, which also reveal it has provided $190m for various clean-up and environmental projects.
Federal and state environment ministers have released a draft regulatory impact statement aimed at tightening controls on chemicals that cause environmental harm.