Port Adelaide Salvage and director found guilty of illegally dumping asbestos

Australia Broadcast Center

a day ago

An Adelaide demolition company and its director have been ordered to pay more than $700,000 after being found guilty of breaching the Environment Protection Act.
Thousands of tonnes of asbestos-contaminated demolition waste was illegally dumped by Port Adelaide Salvage and its director Maurizio Corsaro in 2017.
The waste was discovered by the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) at two seperate sites in Sedan, in the state's Murraylands, and at Houghton, in the Adelaide Hills.
The EPA said the waste was discovered after a tip-off and subsequent investigation in 2017, and included timber, bricks and concrete.
The land in Houghton was owned by Corsaro, while the EPA said the Sedan sites were owned by members of the public who were not fully aware of its use.
The Environment, Resources and Development Court of South Australia found Port Adelaide Salvage and Corsaro guilty of 14 charges.
Corsaro was fined $117,500 for operating a waste depot without a licence, hindering and using offensive or threatening language towards an EPA officer, assaulting an EPA officer and failing to comply with a clean-up order.
Port Adelaide Salvage was fined $170,000.
Both have been ordered to pay prosecution costs of $26,987, and entered into an agreement with the EPA to pay back $400,000 in clean-up costs.
In his sentencing remarks in July, Senior Judge Michael Durrant said he was not confident about Corsaro's prospects for rehabilitation.
"The offending in this case was done with an awareness of the need for a licence," Mr Durrant said.
"It was also done despite the imposition of past penalties. It involved actions for significant commercial gain and it was sophisticated and deceptive.
"This offending in this case is a serious example of its type."
Mr Durrant said the inherent criminality of the offending was reflected in the sentencing.
"Unlawful dumping harms the community and detracts from general amenity and the enjoyment of the community of land," he said.
EPA director of compliance Steven Sergi told ABC Radio Regional Drive host Narelle Graham regional areas typically had more illegal dumping than metropolitan areas due to the remoteness of the sites.
"Between us and local government, we're quite aware of some of those pockets.
"We will target those areas and catch a lot of fines, hence the covert cameras that we use, and really staking out those areas to get as much evidence as we can."
Mr Sergi said illegal dumping occurred at various scales across the state; however, offending of this scale were rare.
He said it typically included people throwing items such as old mattresses or couches out on roadsides.
"Illegal dumping is effectively free riding off the system and local governments, who typically get stuck with the bill of cleaning that up, especially from the side of the road," he said.
Port Adelaide Salvage has been contacted for comment.