DURBAN - A JOINT preliminary investigation into a compliance profile report has revealed that United Phosphorus Limited SA (UPL) did not have the environmental authorisation nor the critical risk assessment or planning permissions needed to operate.
The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) released the report during a media briefing on Sunday. The report is a factual assessment by different government authorities relating to licences, permits and authorisations that UPL was required to have, in order to lawfully conduct its operations.
DFFE Minister Barbara Creecy said: “The findings indicate that UPL was not in possession of the requisite environmental authorisation prior to establishing its operations in Cornubia three months before the incident. The authorisation should have been obtained from the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs.
“In addition, UPL had not obtained a critical risk assessment, or planning permissions from the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality, in terms of the Occupational Health and Safety Act and the relevant municipal by-laws.”
DFFE enforcement chief director Frances Craigie said UPL was operating in a highly regulated environment. Its failure to get regulatory permissions may have compromised the preparedness of the facility to react in the way that it needed to during the riots.
“UPL’s operations then involved the unlawful storage of what we classify as dangerous goods … they required certain permissions they did not have before the fire,” Craigie said.
“The volumes of chemicals stored in that warehouse were significant, and it triggered … a listed activity. In order to commence with a listed activity, you need to obtain an environmental authorisation from the KZN department, and prior to it actually giving you that authorisation, you need to undergo an environmental impact assessment.”
Craigie said that under occupational safety and health administration and major hazard installation regulations, UPL did not undertake the assessment that was required to declare them a major hazard installation. UPL had not obtained a Scheduled Activities Permit prior to the fire.
In response to the report, UPL issued a statement on Sunday stating that they were disappointed that Creecy had released the preliminary report findings without any prior discussion with the company.
The report was only sent to UPL on Saturday night, hours before its release.
As a result, UPL said it had insufficient time to properly consider it, and that it did not address that the fires which led to the pollution were caused by rioters during the civil unrest, which emergency services could not contain.
“At first glance, the circulation of this preliminary report at extremely late notice to UPL appears to have been a deliberate strategy to deny UPL sufficient time within which to enforce its rights and ultimately to prejudice its rights. UPL does not admit any non-compliance with the law, as alleged in the preliminary report,” read the statement.
UPL said it would respond to the allegations in the appropriate forums in due course. For now, it intended to get on with the clean-up operations.
Daily News