Truegain Pty Ltd, trading as Australian Waste Oil Refineries, was fined after Environment Protection Authority inspectors found refinery staff using a bobcat and backhoe to scrape Maitland council land adjoining the refinery and removing what appeared to be hydrocarbon contaminated soils, an EPA report said.

A senior Truegain employee said they were cleaning up material that had left the refinery, may be as early as April last year during floods.

“Contamination of land has occurred both within and beyond the premises boundary,” the EPA report said.

Records show Truegain, established in 1994, was issued its first clean-up notice in October 2010, its first penalty notice in June 2012, and another 10 penalty notices since then. 

It has also been the subject of Land and Environment Court action.

Hunter Water took the unprecedented step of disconnecting Australian Waste Oil Refineries from the network last Tuesday after perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) levels up to nearly 400 times the accepted health risk limit were found in samples being discharged to the sewer.

The levels were not dissimilar to extremely high concentrations detected in parts of the Williamtown RAAF Base contamination area, Hunter Water interim chief ­executive officer Jeremy Bath said. 

Contamination is the legacy of decades of firefighting foam use.

The EPA has issued legally ­binding notices to Truegain and Australian Waste Oil Refineries for information on all sources of wastewater received at the premises since January 1.

The EPA said it would consider whether any amendments were required to Hunter Water’s licence, in response to a question about whether it would include PFOS and PFOA testing at the water authority’s six wastewater treatment plants, after PFOS and PFOA were found at the Farley plant as part of the Rutherford refinery investigation.