Refinery hit with fluoride infringement penalty

Viva’s Geelong refinery has been fined $7500 by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) emitting an excess amount of fluoride last November.
EPA executive director of regional services Damian Wells said following a notification by Viva that it had breached its emission limits EPA launched an investigation into the incident.
“The investigation found that fluorine compounds had been released from Viva’s site at a rate of 160 grams-per-minute, above the licence limit of 140 grams-per-minute,” Mr Wells said.
“EPA will now require Viva, through a notice, to identify the cause of the high emissions and ways to address the problem.
“Although there is no indication that any damage to the environment has occurred from this breach, fluorine emissions higher than permitted in Viva’s licence could result in offsite impacts to plants and the community.
“As a condition of Viva’s licence, it is required to undertake offsite monitoring to see if any impacts have occurred from fluorine emissions.
“Monitoring undertaken during the emissions has indicated no offsite impacts.”
Mr Wells said that EPA had also become aware of further breaches of Viva’s licence for fluorine compound emissions.
“EPA is investigating these further breaches in accordance with its Compliance and Enforcement Policy and further sanctions are possible,” Mr Wells said.
“Licence holders have obligations to maintain facilities that operate within EPA licence conditions.”
Mr Wells said the fine followed a previous fine and four warnings since August 2014 for licence offences involving water discharge and sulphur dioxide emissions.
He said the level of incident was “simply not acceptable”.
“Conditions in an EPA licence are there to regulate industry impact on the environment and protect the community and future generations.”
Refinery general manager Thys Heyns said the company accepted the penalty and was disappointed with the performance.
He said Viva had engaged independent experts to assist in identifying the root cause of the four occasions the refinery exceeded its licence conditions during late 2015 and early 2016.
He said the experts would recommend potential solutions to prevent further incidents.
“Viva Energy takes its environmental responsibilities seriously and I am confident that through the additional support we are seeking we can avoid these issues happening in the future,” he said.
“We know that there is a correlation between production during summer months and increased emissions.
“Once the investigation is complete, we will need to investigate how we can implement the recommended solutions, while still meeting our customer’s needs.
“As we have done in the past, we will donate the dollar value of this infringement notice to Greening Australia and we will continue to keep the community updated on our environmental performance.”