RUTHERFORD'S notorious Truegain waste oil refinery will be cleaned up under a plan to return the heavily-contaminated site to industrial use.
In a major breakthrough in the fight to have Truegain's toxic legacy contained, the NSW Environment Protection Authority confirmed this week it was working on a tender to have the abandoned refinery remediated.
The Newcastle Herald can also reveal that the NSW government has awarded a $5.6 million contract to Suez Recycling and Recovery to make sure toxic fire fighting foam contaminated water, stored in dozens of ageing tanks at the Kyle St property, is contained.
As a legal dispute over who is responsible to pay for the removal of contamination from the site continues, Maitland MP Jenny Aitchison applauded the government's action after years of heavy fire about the pollution.
She said it was crucial to get a lasting solution for the community and surrounding businesses.
Notorious for flooding in heavy rain, the property contains dozens of ageing tanks containing toxic waste, a large underground storage tank contaminated with PFAS chemicals and a cracked concrete spill containment area.
"They finally appear to be taking this seriously," she said.
"There has been a lot of activism from myself as the local member, the Newcastle Herald and the local community. It's positive to see a significant investment by the NSW Government in protecting our community from pollution."
In November, the EPA launched civil debt recovery proceedings against former Truegain director and site owner Robert Pullinger in a bid recoup $1,178,940 the watchdog has spent cleaning up and managing wastewater to ensure there are no further leaks to nearby Stony Creek. Judgement has been reserved in the case.
A surface water interception, storage and disposal system has been installed to reduce the risk of flooding. The system is pumped out prior to, and after heavy rain, to ensure chemicals don't leave the site.
An EPA spokesman said the government was progressing a long-term environmental solution.
"The EPA is working on a tender for the clean up and remediation of the site to return it to a condition fit for its industrial zoning," he said.
"The tender is still in process."
The news comes just days after a line was drawn under the business operations of Truegain, as its 5-year liquidation came to an end.
The wind up has netted little return for dozens of former employees who had to rely on the Federal Government's Fair Entitlement Guarantee Scheme, designed to assist workers who lose their jobs due to employer liquidation or bankruptcy, to receive less than half of what they were owed.
Workers were owed $1.385 million in wages, holiday pay, superannuation, long service and termination payments, and received about $680,000.
Unsecured trade creditors were even worse off, 154 of them owed almost $2.9 million, received nothing.
Truegain, also known as Australian Waste Oil Refineries (AWOR), closed its doors in late 2016.
The organisation recycled a range of materials at its Rutherford site since the 1990s and was made up of two companies. Truegain dealt with contaminated water, while AWOR handled waste oil and processed fuel.
Liquidator Jamieson Louittit and Associates revealed the two companies owed more than $5.79 million and had $100,410 in the bank.
NAB was paid $2.3 million following the sale of the company's Sydney industrial yard, a property at Orange, motor vehicles and equipment.
Truegain's atrocious environmental record, exposed by a Newcastle Herald investigation, included oil and liquid waste dumping into surrounding waterways and properties dating back decades.
More than 40 former workers told how the company would routinely use its Rutherford plant and surrounding waterways as a dumping ground for waste collected from industrial yards, Williamtown RAAF base, airports, service stations, mines and car washes.
The liquidator said the business failed due to poor strategic management, outstanding taxes, high capital costs and insufficient cash flow.
Industry representatives were asked to submit proposals on how to tackle the clean up of the site by late February.
It's estimated the clean-up bill could be well in excess of $10 million.
