Adelaide operator awaits fine after breaching waste licence

The Corporation of the City of Adelaide (ACC) has been found guilty by the Environment, Resources and Development Court (ERD Court) for failing to meet a deadline to cap a landfill waste site.

In the ERD Court on 22 December, Judge Susan Cole ruled against ACC for failing to complete the capping at the Wingfield landfill site, Dry Creek.

The sequence of events leading to the conviction goes back several years.

Under a former administration, ACC operated the Wingfield Waste Depot subject to special legislation that required it to stop accepting waste at the site by December 2000. The Wingfield Waste Depot Closure Act 1999 then added a provision to extend this period until December 2004, which was dependent on ACC submitting a Landfill Environmental Management Plan to EPA South Australia.

Following ACC’s numerous appeals to the ERD Court over licence conditions, landfill capping designs and late submissions of alternative designs, the EPA accepted a plan from ACC in 2008 that allowed for 20 per cent of the landfill site to be capped each year over five years, with a completion date of December 2012. Three years after this deadline passed, only 15 per cent of the landfill site has been capped.

At the ERD court on 22 December, the judge found that on the evidence presented each of the four counts of failing to comply with licence conditions under the Environment Protection Act 1993 were proven beyond a reasonable doubt. She found ACC guilty on two counts, with the other two having lapsed for being out of time.

The maximum penalty for a body corporate contravening a condition of its licence is $120,000. The fine will be determined on 25 February, when the ERD Court will pass sentence.

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