An Australian court has slapped nearly half a million dollars in fines on chemical firm Orica Australia for polluting Gladstone Harbour with cyanide. The Queensland firm pleaded guilty to releasing cyanide-tainted water 217 times in 2011 and to neglecting wastewater testing over a two and half year period.
In a first for Australia, AUS$250,000 of the $485,000 in fines and legal costs will go directly to conservation initiatives.
The amount of the payout is nearly identical to Orica’s 2011 donation to The Nature Conservancy, according the firm’s 2011 sustainability report.
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