Hydraulic fracking for oil and gas has the potential to affect drinking water but in America there are few cases where this is known to have occurred, according to a major draft study by the US Environmental Protection Agency.
The NSW Land and Environment Court has levied a $63,000 fine plus costs on the director of an earthmoving and haulage company who arranged for more than 3,500 tonnes of asbestos-contaminated waste to be removed from a Shell refinery site and illegally dumped at a rural residential property.
Rehabilitating abandoned and shoddily-closed mines is likely to cost $1 billion, the Northern Territory Government estimates, prompting it to introduce a new levy on the mining industry.
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.
Santos has pledged to rapidly improve the environmental performance of recently-acquired NSW coal seam gas operations after its investigation showed elevated soil salinity levels.