Environmental Pollution and Control at Orica Botany Site

This report highlights the contamination issues present at the Orica Botany site. The report further delves into the land, air and ground water pollution emanating from the Orica Botany site. It further highlights the problem of toxic mercury emissions emanating from the site. It shows the plethora of remedial measures that are being undertaken to curb pollution from the Orica Botany site by Orica Private Limited.

Running head: Environmental Pollution and Control
Environmental Pollution and Control
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Author Note

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Executive Summary
This report highlights the contamination issues present at the Orica Botany site. The
report further delves into the land, air and ground water pollution emanating from the Orica
Botany site. It further highlights the problem of toxic mercury emissions emanating from the site.
It shows the plethora of remedial measures that are being undertaken to curb pollution from the
Orica Botany site by Orica Private Limited.
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION:..........................................................................................................................3
History of the Site:...........................................................................................................................3

2ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION AND CONTROL
Land and Air Pollution Issues:........................................................................................................3
Mechanisms for Pollution Control:.................................................................................................5
The Environmental Monitoring conducted and Remediation Measures applied:...........................5
An Evaluation of the Techniques and the Processes used:..............................................................6
Recommendations for Improved Practices:.....................................................................................7
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES:.............................................................................................................................10

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INTRODUCTION:
This report will focus on the contamination of the land and groundwater at the Orica
Botany site. It will also highlight the mercury emissions emanating from the Orica Botany site. It
will briefly document the history of Orica Limited, an Australian multinational organization and
will also document the history of the site and the major air, land and groundwater pollution
issues emanating from the site. It will describe the various methods that are being used to curb
air and groundwater pollution by Orica Limited. It will also highlights the remediation measures
that have been implemented by Orica Limited.
History of the Site: Orica Limited is an Australian multinational organization that
supplies explosives and equipments for blasting to the mining, quarrying, oil and gas industry.
They also provide sodium cyanide to extract gold and provides support and services in mining
and tunneling. Orica Limited was founded in 1874 and the company provides its services to
customers across more than hundred countries. It has eleven thousand five hundred employees in
its workforce and is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. The headquarters of Orica
Limited is in East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Orica’s Botany Industrial Park, situated in the
Sydney suburb of Banksmeadow was formerly owned by ICI, a British company dealing with
chemicals before it became independent in February 1998 (Altalyan et al. 2016).
Land and Air Pollution Issues: Historical operations at the Botany Industrial Park
have led to soil and groundwater contamination on the site as well as the adjoining areas. This
unfortunate event started from as early as 1940s and carried on until the late 1980s. The harmful
carcinogenic chemicals that were mixed with the groundwater formed a toxic layer and spread

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across two square kilometers below the houses of nearly one thousand people. This toxic layer of
chemicals is now advancing towards Botany Bay. If unchecked, this toxic layer of chemicals will
harm marine life and also harm humans and animals who come in contact with the harmful toxic
water in Botany Bay. In addition to soil and groundwater contamination, mercury emissions also
emanate from the Orica Botany site.
According to a report published by Greenpeace in 2004, there is a huge amount of
hexachlorobenzene in the site where Orica is situated and a large amount of ethylene dichloride
that seeped into the ground for decades and contaminated the groundwater that is below the
Orica site. At present, Chlorine, Polyethylene, Ethylene glycol, Low density polyethylene,
ethylene and water that is not mineralized are manufactured at the Orica site (Altalyan et al.
2016).
Earlier industrial and trade waste was not disposed of properly and no measures were
taken to prevent the contamination of land. There was a lack of environmental awareness. Lack
of environmental awareness in addition to lack of knowledge led to this catastrophe. From the
1960s to 1991, due to the production of plastic and chemical solvents, a huge amount of
hexachlorobenzene was produced. Hexachlorobenzene is an organic pollutant that does not
biodegrade. It can affect the skin, nerves, the liver and kidneys and cause cancer. The toxic
groundwater at the Orica site further adds to the problem. The sources of contamination include
the solvent plant that was used earlier, tanks to store dichloroethane (EDC) tanks that were
earlier used to store carbon tetrachloride (CTC), filled areas adjacent to the railway line and old
surface drain (Altalyan et al. 2016).

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In addition to causing groundwater pollution, The Environmental Protection Authority’s particle
characterization study found that Orica Limited is also contributing to rising ammonium nitrate
levels in the atmosphere thereby causing air pollution.
Mechanisms for Pollution Control: On 26th of September 2003, the New South
Wales Environmental Protection Authority issued a notice to Orica to clean up the contaminated
groundwater under Section 91 of the Protection of the Environment Operation Act 1997. Orica
was instructed to clean up the groundwater contaminated by the chemicals that emanated from
the Botany Industrial Park. The chemicals that contaminated the groundwater include
“Chlorinated Methanes, Carbon Tetrachloride, Methylene Chloride, Chloroform,
Chloromethane, Chlorinated Ethenes, Tetrachloroethane, Trichloroethane, Dichloroethane,
Chloromethane, Chlorinated ethenes, Dichloroethene, Trichloroethene, Vinyl Chloride,
Dichlorobenzene, Trichlorobenzene, Tetrachlorobenzene, Pentachlorobenzene,
Hexachlorobenzene, Hexachlorobutadiene, Hexachloroethane and Hexachloropropylene”
(Montoya 2015). The most toxic of all chemicals that have seeped underground and have
contaminated the groundwater is Dichloroethane or EDC. It is primarily used for making plastic
and synthetic textile fibers. It may cause disorders in the central nervous system and may affect
the stomach, the lungs, the kidney and the liver. It can also lead to cancer. In July 2005, the site
of the Botany Industrial Park was declared a Groundwater Exclusion Area by the Department of
Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources and residents of that area were requested not to
use that water under any circumstances. Notices were put up and people were warned not to
swim in this area due to the presence of contaminated water. People were also forbade to
consume any kind of marine life from this area.

6ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION AND CONTROL
The Environmental Monitoring conducted and Remediation Measures
applied: In October 2004, Orica Limited announced that it would spend one hundred and fifty
four million Australian dollars to clean up the entire area. One hundred and sixteen Australian
dollars would be spent on removing the toxic groundwater and thirty eight million Australian
dollars would be spent to process and convert the toxic groundwater, to the standard of drinking
water. Orica Limited takes full responsibility of the problem. Orica Limited regrets the fact that
the groundwater has been contaminated in the past and promises to clean it up. (Bell et al. 2014).
Orica has kept the remediation process. It keeps residents of the area informed on the progress of
the clean up drive through a local newspaper and through their web page entitled ‘Orica Botany
Groundwater’ Orica Limited often holds press conferences for journalists to report on the
remediation plan and its progress. (Selinger and Barrow 2017).
An Evaluation of the Techniques and the Processes used: As per the clean
up notice issued by Orica Limited, Orica Limited has to carry out a hydraulic purification of
toxic groundwater. For that, Orica Limited has started working in order to manufacture a
containment barrier. Inside the containment barrier, there are thirty sets of hydraulic pumps that
will pump out the toxic groundwater and deposit it to a plant where it will get treated and reused
on the site for other purposes. (Bell et al. 2014). For the treatment of the contaminated
groundwater, Orica Limited recommended the process of air stripping, and also the use of a
thermal oxidizer. (Bell et al. 2014.) Air stripping is an effective method for removing
contaminants from water. Recuperative thermal oxidizer helps to destroy the EDC waste through
air stripping. Recuperative thermal oxidizer operates at 1000 degree Celsius, and has an
extremely high destruction efficiency. The purified groundwater will be reused for other
purposes on the site of the Botany Industrial Park. The groundwater treatment plant built on the

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Botany Industrial Park can purify fifteen million litres of the contaminated ground water per day.
The purified groundwater strives to meet the standards and guidelines set by the Australian and
New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council, Marine Guidelines and the Australian
Drinking Water Guidelines (Bell et al. 2014).
Recommendations for Improved Practices:
 High temperature incinerators should be developed to treat chlorinated chemical
wastes.
 GeoMelt process should be adopted by Orica to destroy waste on site and off site.
Orica should remain committed to actively implementing a safe environmentally
sound solution (Altalyan et al. 2016).
Conclusion: Orica Australia is committed to managing air and land pollution issues at
the Orica Botany site. They have taken full responsibility of the problem and are totally
committed towards obliterating the problem. Stringent measures are being taken to negate the
effect of land and ground water pollution at the Orica Botany site. Orica Limited is trying its
best to purify the ground water in the Orica site and it is also trying to prevent further
groundwater pollution. The Botany Groundwater Cleanup Project was started by Orica Australia
to control the groundwater pollution and also prevent the toxic groundwater from entering
Botany Bay. This is done by treating the toxic groundwater at a Groundwater Treatment Plant for
reuse. Orica Limited seeks the advice of international experts and local regulators in this clean up
project. To protect the health of human beings and the environment, Orica Limited regularly
monitors the environment. They have adopted a Human Health Risk Assessment to identify the
factors that may affect human health and they work towards mitigating those risks. Orica

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Limited completed the purification of the soil for remediation projects in 2015. Orica Limited
has also cleaned the site that was used to manufacture pharmaceuticals and transferred the toxic
soils to a storage place north east corner of the site. The main contaminants in the soil include
DDT and its degradation products DDD and DDE, total petroleum hydrocarbons, benzene, 1,2-
dichloroethane also known as EDC, trichloroethene, chlorobenzene,1,4-dichlorobenzene,
hexachlorobenzene,lindane and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Orica Limted has also
undertaken a plethora of Community Outreach programs in relation to the Botany Groundwater
Cleanup Project.
REFERENCES:

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Altalyan, H.N., Jones, B., Bradd, J., Nghiem, L.D. and Alyazichi, Y.M., 2016. Removal of
volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from groundwater by reverse osmosis and
nanofiltration. Journal of Water Process Engineering, 9, pp.9-21.
Bell, J.M., Frater, B., Butterfield, L., Cunningham, S.D., Dodgson, M., Fox, K., Spurling, T. and
Webster, E., 2014. Securing Australia's future: The role of science, research and
technology in lifting Australian productivity.
Blount, C., Bennett, R. and Smith, M.L., 2017. Managing sensitive habitats adjacent to the Port
Botany expansion. Australasian Coasts & Ports 2017: Working with Nature, p.123.
Chamnanvatchakit, P., Prodpran, T., Benjakul, S. and Prasarpran, S., 2015. Use of Epoxidized
Natural Rubber (ENR) for property improvement of gelatin film. Indian Journal of
Science and Technology, 8(36).
Harrison, P. and Harries, G., Orica Ltd, 1973. Ammonium nitrate-fuel oil composition containing
ammonium nitrate prills of different porosity, hardness, and density. U.S. Patent
3,781,180.
Hartcher, P., 2014. The Sweet Spot: How Australia Made Its Own Luck-and Could Now Throw it
All Away. Black Inc..
Kearney, R. and Farebrother, G., 2015. The comparative performance of the management of the
individual threats to marine environments and fisheries resources. FRDC Project,
(2013/029).

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Lakshmanan, S. and Murugesan, T., 2014. The chlor-alkali process: work in progress. Clean
Technologies and Environmental Policy, 16(2), pp.225-234.
Maier, V., NEW ZEALAND Ltd and Orica Ltd, 1973. Purification of tetramisole. U.S. Patent
3,746,718.
MOGHADDASI, M., HALVANI, G.H. and BAFGHI, M.S., 2017. The Use of accident
indicators for risk assessment monitoring in design and construction phase of pelletizing
project, 2016-2017. International Journal of Occupational Hygiene, 9(3), pp.171-178.
Montoya, D., 2015. Pollution in Sydney Harbour: sewage, toxic chemicals and microplastics.
NSW Parliamentary Research Service.
Rayu, S., 2016. The interactions between xenobiotics and soil microbial communities.
Ren, Z. and Graham, N., 2015. Treatment of humic acid in drinking water by combining
potassium manganate (Mn (Vi)), ferrous sulfate, and magnetic ion
exchange. Environmental Engineering Science, 32(3), pp.175-178.
Selinger, B. and Barrow, R., 2017. Chemistry in the Marketplace. CSIRO PUBLISHING.