Orica welcomes revised Chromium VI results

15 February 2012

Orica has today welcomed the NSW Environment Protection Authority’s (EPA) announcement of revised results of swab samples taken by the EPA after the 8 August 2011 release of hexavalent chromium in Stockton.

The revised swab results and resultant estimates of Chromium VI emission off the Kooragang Island site are significantly less than those originally published after the 8 August incident last year. The original estimate of between 10kg and 20kg of Chromium VI emitted off site has now been corrected to 1 kg which in turn translates to an estimated 35 grams to 60 grams of Chromium VI deposited across Stockton.

Orica Managing Director and CEO, Graeme Liebelt said, "These revised figures do not change the fact that we had an incident at Kooragang Island that we deeply regret. We have acknowledged that our response at the time was not what the community expected and we are continuing to work hard to regain trust and improve our communications.

"At the time of the incident, the NSW Department of Health advised that the impact on human health from this incident was negligible. These revised figures reinforce this finding.

"We recognise the role of governments to regulate industry and will continue to work constructively with them wherever we operate. We operate complex facilities that provide a great benefit to many Australian businesses and consumers, and we always aspire to the highest environmental and safety standards," he said.

Media contact: Nicole Ekert, Communications Manager, Mobile: 0407 166 783
Fleur Leyden, Butcher and Co: Mobile 0413 598 477
Website: www.oricaki.com.au