Dirty Deeds: Uncovering PFAS contamination at Rutherford in NSW
Dirty Deeds
MILLIONS of litres of toxic waste collected from across Australia has been secretly pumped into creeks or dumped on the ground over decades by a Maitland waste-oil refinery company.
A Newcastle Herald investigation can reveal that Truegain Pty Ltd, also known as Australian Waste Oil Refineries (AWOR), pumped vast quantities of a chemical cocktail polluting creeks that run to the Hunter River.
The contamination dates back to the 1990s.
Truegain was also dumping the notorious contaminant per- and poly-fluoroalkyl [PFAS] into Maitland's sewer and the toxic firefighting chemicals - at the heart of the Williamtown's 'red zone' environmental scandal - have been detected in extremely high levels in a creek behind the refinery.
The complete Newcastle Herald investigation
- Part I: Insiders reveal decades of dumping toxic waste by Rutherford waste-oil refinery Truegain
- Part II: How one small spill at Truegain's Rutherford plant almost cost worker's sight and left him with life-long skin problems
- Part III: Truegain's Rutherford waste-oil refinery workers to miss out on unpaid wages and entitlements
- Part IV: Rutherford waste-oil refinery Truegain used heavily contaminated Sydney yard to hide toxic waste
- Part V: Residents fear Truegain's Rutherford waste-oil refinery site could be 'leaching'
- Former NSW Labor premier Morris Iemma and Queensland minister Carig Wallace in new green company with Truegain director Bob Pullinger
- Former National Textiles site at Rutherford identified as potentially leaching PFAS into nearby waterways