Environmental issues and incidents

North Botany Bay Industrial Precinct is home to a quarter of NSW’s major hazardous facilities, including chemical manufacturing plants at Botany Industrial Park. It is also the location of Australia’s second largest port, Port Botany.

Businesses are responsible for making environmentally sound decisions to ensure their activities comply with regulations that protect the environment and communities. They are also expected to fund and lead remediation and pollution reduction efforts where these become necessary.

Businesses are also responsible for keeping communities informed about their activities and practices, and for consulting with and requesting feedback and input from them.

Botany Industrial Park (BIP)

Botany Industrial Park, a major chemical manufacturing facility, is home to three separate companies: Orica, Qenos and Huntsman.

Activities relating to current chemical manufacturing as well as ongoing remediation to rectify the legacy of past uses of the site can raise concerns in the community relating to:

  • air pollution
  • noise pollution
  • off-site contamination
  • elevated flares (a safety process to burn flammable waste gases).

Orica is responsible for remediating contaminated land at BIP as well as the ongoing environmental management of the site to reduce and eliminate, where possible, risks from activities at the site. For more information, visit our Orica Botany webpage.

To request information about Botany Industrial Park, phone the industry-run BIP Community Hotline: 1800 025 138.

To report pollution or raise concerns, contact the EPA’s Environment Line 131 555 or www.epa.nsw.gov.au.

Port Botany

Port Botany has recently undergone a major expansion to its shipping container operations and now includes the three stevedoring companies Patricks, DP World and Hutchison Ports.

Port Botany also hosts fuel and chemical storage facilities, NSW’s largest paper recycling mill and a number of other major industries.

Other environmental issues and incidents in Botany

Contaminant testing at Hillsdale

The EPA tested for soil contaminants at a Sydney Water easement at Hillsdale in April 2013: details about this EPA investigation, follow-up action and public engagement

Concerns about mercury at Malabar Headland

The EPA has responded to concerns about mercury at Malabar Headland (130211qamalabar.pdf, 20KB).

EPA investigation into noise levels at Matraville

The EPA has released findings from noise monitoring conducted at Matraville (PDF, 58KB)

Mercury ambient air monitoring conducted at Matraville

The EPA has released findings from mercury ambient air monitoring at Botany Industrial Park in Matraville (140303mercairmonitor.pdf, 124KB).

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