East Narangba Community Action Group

GPO Box 89
Kallangur 4503
Ph. 3888 5287 Fax 3888 8218

Promoting a Better Environment for Our Families
and Future Generations

NARANGBA INDUSTRIAL ESTATE

BINARY INDUSTRIES CHEMICAL SPILL - Community Report
A&C Chemicals
It has been brought to my attention that A&C Chemicals have not been subpoenaed to attend the trial. Given that the samples taken from the creek were collected from near the intersection of this tributary and Saltwater Creek, this point is downstream of A&C Chemicals who had a chemical spill in this vicinity in December 2005.

For the EPA not to subpoena A&C Chemicals to give evidence during the trial would be a miscarriage of justice as this company conduct the same work as Binary Industries and are a competitor. Mr. Terry Armstrong was a manager at A&C Chemicals before he went into business with Mr. Ken Hayward and the Hayward family (with the Hayward Family trust trading under the name Hamcor Pty Ltd).

A court trial must arrive at a judgement (conclusion) based on evidence. The absence or omission of evidence that could yield a very different result is a negligent act and the Environmental Protection Agency must subpoena the Directors of A&C Chemicals Pty Ltd (now Accensi) if it is truly interested in conducting a proper and fruitful trial. Binary Industries was established as a replicate and competitor of A&C Chemicals that had an impressive production output despite the smaller size of its site.

The fact that both of these companies have had chemical incidents that have caused environmental harm clearly demonstrates that these larger companies do not have the degree of control that the government would like to believe and, on this basis, warrants further investigation of both the companies and the regulatory processes controlling them.

BINARY INDUSTRIES FIRE
Spill Containment Bunding
It is evidenced from examining the Binary Industries site from Magnesium Street that there was no effective chemical spill containment bund in the northern building. This building has concrete formed up against the outside of the building to act as a containment bund.

As this building was in excess of 500m2, Queensland Fire and Rescue Service must have examined and approved the buildings based on, among other criteria, the ability to contain a spill from the largest tank inside the building and 20 minutes of firewater. In the Narangba industrial Estate, the flow rate is a standard 20 litres per second.

We have been informed that the bund were initially present when the building were approved and built, however, sections of the bund were removed for additional doorways after the buildings were initially constructed. This brings into question a number of individuals employed by the various state and local government agencies, namely:
Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Officers conducting inspections and audits under the Environmental Protection Act to ensure compliance with the Act and the site Environmental Authority
Caboolture Shire Council Environmental Health Officers conducting audits and inspections for Binary’s Class 3 licence (Flammable and Combustible Liquids Licence issued under Section 4 of the Dangerous Goods Safety Management Act)
Queensland Fire and Rescue Service Officers conducting annual inspections at site. This should include important items such as firewater containment as it is a part of the building approval relating to fire safety.
CHEM Unit officers who visited the site as Binary Industries were classified as a Large Dangerous Goods Location (LDGL) and had applied to become a Major Hazard Facility (MHF).

CLASS 3 STORAGE AND HANDLING
The storage and handling of Class 3 (flammable liquids) must be conducted with proper regard to risk and the appropriate provisions of Australian Standard AS1940-2004: The Storage and Handling of Flammable and Combustible Liquids. The use of this standard as a mandatory guidance is contained as a standard condition in Flammable and Combustible Liquids Licences, which are issued and administered by local governments under the Dangerous Goods Safety Management Act by delegation.

Binary Industries stored large quantities of the flammable liquids Dimethyl Amine (DMA) and Mono Isopropyl Amine (MIPA), both of which are Class 3 dangerous goods that are designated Packing Group 1 (PG1 – greatest danger). Due to this elevated risk, there should have been a Hazardous Area Classification enforced upon them by the Caboolture Shire Council Environmental Health Officers who were delegated with the flammable liquids licensing responsibilities under section 4 of the Dangerous Goods Safety Management Regulation.

Hazardous Area Classification
It has been brought to our attention by the Chemical and Hazard Emergency Management (CHEM) Unit that the Australian Standards for hazardous area classification apply. These specific standards are:
Australian Standard AS2430.3-1991: Classification of Hazardous Areas, Part 3: Specific Occupancies. This standard was previously published in 1991, 1987 and 1981, and was originally published as a part of AS1076.2- 1977)
Australian Standard AS2430.3.1-2004: Classification of Hazardous Areas, Part 3.1: Examples of Hazardous Area Classification - General. This standard was previously published in 1997and was originally published as a part of AS1076.2- 1977)
Australian Standard AS2430.3.3-2004: Classification of Hazardous Areas, Part 3.3: Examples of Hazardous Area Classification – Flammable Liquids. This standard was previously published in 1997and was originally published as a part of AS1076.2- 1977)

All components of the hazardous area classification standards have been available since 1977, however, the application of this series of standards for flammable liquids licensing by councils in general appears to have been neglected somewhat as there is very little evidence that this standard has been implemented by any holder of a Flammable & Combustible Liquids Licence in Caboolture shire. The Caboolture Shire Council Officers responsible for issuing and regulating these licences have denied that they were aware of the standard and maintain that it does not apply.

The local governments have a role of regulation and facilitation with regard to the Flammable & Combustible licences as they are in the key position for issuing the licences, regulating the operations using these licences and, in theory, are certainly more aware of the regulatory requirements than anybody else. The fact that the Councils accept money for these licences is a legal transfer of responsibility once the financial transaction for the licence application or renewal is complete.

These licences refer to AS1940-2004: The Storage and Handling of Flammable and Combustible Liquids, which in turn refers to AS2430.3-1991: Classification of Hazardous Areas, Part 3: Specific Occupancies. The point in case is the simple fact that the Councils have an overriding responsibility to advise licensees when the Hazardous Area Classification standards apply to a particular licence.

Currently it is the CHEM Unit that is providing the advice to some Flammable and Combustible Liquids Licence holders. The tremendous risk with this arrangement is that not all Flammable and Combustible Liquids Licence holders are Dangerous Goods Locations, Large Dangerous Goods Locations or Major Hazard Facilities.

The precedence is that one regulator of the Dangerous Goods Safety Management Act is issuing advice regarding the application of AS2430.3, while the key regulator for Flammable Liquids does not. This is a very hit-and-miss approach that is leaving the community at risk with liabilities that are overwhelming.

The CHEM Unit have a Dangerous Goods Safety Advisor who is charged with the responsibility of overseeing and assisting local government officers who are delegated with the responsibilities (and accountabilities) of licensing and regulating the storage and handling of flammable and combustible liquids as detailed in Section 4 of the Dangerous Goods Safety Management Regulation 2001. A former employee of the CHEM Unit questioned this officer in January 2006 as to how successful he has been with overseeing the councils with the advice regarding the application of Hazardous Area Classifications, to which he replied, “…they are not required for flammable licensing….”. He was advised that the Hazardous Area Classifications do apply to flammable licences as it is specifically stated in the Australian Standard AS1940: The Storage and Handling of Flammable and Combustible Liquids.

One the face of it, the regulation of the Flammable and Combustible Liquids Licences appears to be suffering from systemic failure. Either complete and formal training of Council officers or simply transferring the responsibility for Flammable and Combustible Liquids licensing back to the State Government by withdrawing the delegation that exists under the Dangerous Goods Safety Management Act must rectify this systemic failure.

We demand that the Environmental Protection Agency subpoena the following for the Binary Industries Fire trial:
All training records for the Caboolture Shire Council Environmental Health Officers Rhian Davies, Michael Taylor and the Environment Health coordinator, Mr Brett Madill.
All inspection and audit records (both hard copy and electronic) for Flammable and Combustible Liquids licences undertaken by the Caboolture Shire Council for at least the previous 3 years.
Caboolture Shire Council Environment Health Coordinator, Mr Brett Madill who is the head of the Environmental Department at Caboolture Shire Council who are delegates of the Dangerous Goods Safety Management Act for Flammable Liquids and who conduct the regulation of Flammable and Combustible Liquids licenses (audits, inspections and renewals);
Caboolture Shire Council Environmental Health Officers Rhian Davies, Michael Taylor, who are Environmental Health Officers in the Environmental Department at Caboolture Shire Council who are delegates of the Dangerous Goods Safety Management Act for Flammable Liquids and who conduct the regulation of Flammable and Combustible Liquids licenses (audits, inspections and renewals) within the Narangba Industrial Estate;
Any other Caboolture Shire Council Environmental Health Officers who are employed in the Environmental Department at Caboolture Shire Council who are delegates of the Dangerous Goods Safety Management Act for Flammable Liquids and conduct the regulation of Flammable and Combustible Liquids licenses (audits, inspections and renewals) within the Narangba Industrial Estate;
Caboolture Shire Council Manager Environment& Planning, Mr. Leo Jensen, who is the Caboolture Shire Council Manager responsible for the Environmental Department, its’ officers, their training and the respective budgets allocated to resource the regulation of Flammable and Combustible Liquids licenses (audits, inspections and renewals) within the Narangba Industrial Estate;
CHEM Unit records for audits and investigations of industries within the Narangba Industrial Estate.
CHEM Unit records of Hazardous Area Classifications conducted by industries within the Narangba Industrial Estate by businesses that were the holders of Flammable and Combustible
CHEM Unit Dangerous Goods Safety Advisor, Mr. Tapash Das, who has the role of overseeing the role of local government agencies in the regulation of the delegated sections of the Dangerous Goods Safety Management Act.

AUDITS OF THE NARANGBA INDUSTRIAL ESTATE
Following the horrific incident at the Binary Industries site on 25thAugust 2005, the Caboolture Shire Council conducted a series of audits of businesses with the Narangba Industrial Estate to ascertain the levels of safety of the industries that occupy the estate. Caboolture Shire Councillor, Chris Whiting, allegedly coordinated this audit campaign.

The main deficiency of the audit process was the mere fact that A&C Chemicals was the last premises to be audited and they were by far the greatest risk. While the state government maintain that they left this audit until last because they knew the risks at this site because it was a Major Hazard Facility, wouldn’t it be true that they also knew the risks at Binary Industries as it was a LDGL and was either classified as an Major Hazard Facility or was in the process of classification as an Major Hazard Facility?

If any audit program were based on the prevention of the fire that we saw at Binary Industries that was powerful enough to erupt in mushroom clouds (described by one journalist that it looked like it was being bombed), wouldn’t they surely start with the industry in the estate that had the same chemicals and processes as Binary Industries. Even a simple initial audit to verify that critical safety points in their chemical processes would have sufficed and should have been commenced before the flames at Binaries Industries were completely extinguished.

NARANGBA INDUSTRIAL ESTATE REFERENCE GROUP
The Caboolture Shire Council, led by Counsellor Whiting, conducted an internal investigation of the Council’s licensing and regulatory activities within the Narangba Industrial Estate following the Binary Industries fire. As one might imagine, they gave themselves a bill of good health and stated that they had conducted everything properly.

Counsellor Whiting also chairs the Narangba Industrial Estate Reference Group meetings that are held on a quarterly basis, which is attended by representatives from a number of state government agencies and officers from the Caboolture Shire Council. The purpose of this group is for open communication between industry and government as well as communication of issues relating to the estate.

There is almost no attendance from the occupants of the Narangba Industrial Estate as they are not willing to attend on the basis that they are gagged and tied when they want to raise controversial issues, such as the Binary Chemical spill (there is no reference of this spill in the minutes for any of these meetings) and the Binary Industries fire.

Queensland Fire and Rescue Service
One small chemical business had an audit conducted by a Queensland Fire and Rescue Officer early this year who imposed a directive for them to install fire suppression sprinklers at a cost of $120,000. When the QFRS Officer was later questioned as to why they were required to install sprinklers, he stated that they were storing flammables. This business does not store any Class 3 whatsoever – the QFRS Officer was referring to the pallets on which drums were stored (combustible material). With this unacceptable level of knowledge and awareness of QFRS personnel, there is very little chance of detecting genuine problems, so the QFRS training for their inspecting officers must be investigated for address any deficiencies for early detection of major problems.

Another business offered chemical emergency response training to the QFRS in early 2005. The first question that they had was to the effect “what will this cost, we don’t have any money for training”. This company provided the training for free to 25 officers from the QFRS and during this training, the local Divisional Counsellor took photographs of the exercise from the street and presented these to people implying that there had been a chemical incident, rather than the fact the QFRS was being trained by this company. This is not a constructive relationship between the Caboolture Shire Council and the businesses in the Narangba Industrial Estate

The same company offered their facility to the QFRS for chemical emergency response and/or training in the months prior to the Binary Industries fire and the QFRS simply did not display any interest in training in the Narangba Industrial Estate at a real site with real equipment to provide realism in training.

When the Binary Industries fire emergency response was first activated by the QFRS, they decided not to mobilise the foam generator, which just happened to be approximately one hour away. The large fire fighting units could not access the Binary Industries site due to the existence of powerlines across the road and it took the QFRS over one hour to cut through powerlines using Energex personnel. If the foam generator unit had been mobilised, it would have arrived at site on time and could have been used to fight the fire.

Fire Safety Audit Standard
There is an Australian Standard for conducting fire safety audits referred to as AS4655 – 2002: Fire Safety Audits (now AS4655 - 2005). This standard has never been referred to during the course of any audits or site inspections conducted in the Narangba Industrial Estate thus far.

QFRS Training
It appears that there is no firm commitment to training the QFRS Officers from the Deception Bay, Caboolture, Petrie and Redcliffe. There have been no training exercises conducted in this industrial estate that we are aware of.

If the QFRS had a dedicated and adequate training budget allocated to these four stations to enable them to conduct realistic training exercises within this estate, it would have equipped them with the ability to respond to the Binary Industries fire appropriately. Details such as powerlines and the need for a foam generator would have been realised at critical points of the emergency response coordination.

It is not the fault of the QFRS Officers as they are the people who, in many cases, risk their lives to combat and control frightening situations such as the Binary Industries fire. It appears to be a grossly inadequate training system that is at fault and, as usual, it comes down to poorly allocated funding and resources.

As you would have noted in recent weeks, the QFRS are madly trying to abdicate themselves of any responsibility by stating that they could not use foam on this fire. Anyone who has been trained in fire fighting will know that the first point in fighting flammable liquids fires is that you must never, ever use water. This is an inescapable fact – so why is there no foam generator located in or near this estate?

BUILDING CODE OF AUSTRALIA FIRE SEPARATION AND AUSTRALIAN STANDARD REQUIREMENTS

Fire Separation Requirements
It is noted that there appears to be a major deficiency of a functional regulatory role from the Caboolture Shire Council with regard to the approval of buildings that do not have adequate fire separation as dictated by the premier Australian building safety standard, the Building Code of Australia (BCA). There are a number of buildings in the Narangba Industrial Estate that either do not meet the Fire Separation requirements of the BCA, or have experienced major difficulties to even have the Caboolture Shire Council Building Certifiers provide any form of legally-binding approvals for any stage of designing and constructing fire separation walls at other chemical facilities.

One such example took 2 years for the Caboolture Shire Council to actually acknowledge a Fire Engineered Alternative Building Solution that was required to satisfy the Fire Separation requirements of the BCA. The Caboolture Shire Council Building Certifiers / Building Surveyors appear to be reluctant to sign-off on anything involving fire protection and it appears to be either a competence issue or possibly the unwillingness to commit to potential liability should anything go wrong. This is a very disturbing scenario from a community safety perspective, especially given that the Building Services Authority classifies building Certifiers and Building Surveyors as duty-of-care stakeholders for fire separation in buildings, irrespective of whether they are deemed-to-satisfy structures or alternative building solutions.

Section C of the BCA contains all of the requirements for fire separation in buildings, such as fire separation walls. The size of the Binary Industries buildings, as measured from satellite imagery, are just above 2000m2, which is the BCA trigger for requiring fire separation. The BCA states that any colourbond / tin (Type C) building greater than 2000m2 must have fire separation walls to prevent the spread of fire through structures.

A firewall shall have a fire resistance level (FRL) of 240/240/240. The fire resistance level is the grading period, in minutes, determined in accordance with AS 1530.4 for—
(a) structural adequacy;
(b) integrity; and
(c) insulation;
and expressed in that order (e.g. 60/60/30).

Any opening through the fire separation wall must have fire doors and or fire shutters with a fire resistance level (FRL) of -/120/-30. Due to the fact that the activities at Binary Industries involved flammable liquids (Class 3), section C of the BCA has the following requirements:
Any fire doors through a fire separation wall must comply with Australian Standard AS1905.1-1997 (now AS1905.1-2005): Components for the Protection of Openings in Fire-Resistant Walls, Part 1 – Fire Resistant Door sets.
Any fire shutters (i.e. fire-rated roller doors) through a fire separation wall must comply with Australian Standard AS1905.2-1989 (now AS1905.2-2005): Components for the Protection of Openings in Fire-Resistant Walls, Part 2 – Fire Resistant Roller Shutters

The Australian Standard AS1940 – 2004: The Storage and Handling of Flammable and Combustible Liquids have the following requirements for doors in Section 4.4.4.1:
Any doorway through a firewall separating a package store from an on-site protected place shall be provided with a door. Such a door shall—
(a) Be a sliding or an outward-opening, automatic-closing fire door complying with AS/NZS 1905.1, and fitted with a thermal-release device; and
(b) Have an FRL of at least –/120/30.

An on site protected place is described in AS1940 as:
1.4.46 On-site protected place
A building where people are employed within the property boundary, including offices, warehouses, manufacturing or processing areas, amenities and other dangerous goods stores where quantities exceed minor storage.

In the interest of obtaining adequate information to investigate the building and construction standards applicable to the Binary Industries site, we demand that the Environmental Protection Agency subpoena the following for the Binary Industries Fire trial:
All Building Permit records, both hard copy and electronic, held by the Caboolture Shire Council Building and Compliance Departments for any and all documents relating to the issue of all Development Permit – Building Approvals issued to Binary Chemicals / Binary Industries, or the respective owners, for the buildings constructed at Lot XXX Plan XX County of Stanley, Parish of Redcliffe.
All Building Permit records, both hard copy and electronic, held by the Caboolture Shire Council Building and Compliance Departments for any and all documents relating to the issue of all Certificates of Classification issued to Binary Chemicals / Binary Industries, or the respective owners, for the buildings constructed at Lot XXX Plan XX County of Stanley, Parish of Redcliffe.
Caboolture Shire Council Principal Building Surveyor, Mr Christopher Harris. Mr. Harris was the Assessment Manager for the Building Permit(s) issued to Binary Industries for the construction of their buildings as well as assessment of any Fire protection or Special Fire Services required for the site (i.e. fire separation walls or hydrant booster pumps).
Queensland Fire and Rescue Service Building Inspector, Mr. Geoff Perry, who was the QFRS Officer who inspected the Binary Chemicals / Binary Industries building plans as they exceeded 500m2 ad therefore had to be referred to QRFS for assessment before the Caboolture Shire Council Principal Building Surveyor could issue the Development Permit – Building.

During a Narangba Industrial Estate Reference Group meeting, a request was put to Counsellor Whiting for the Caboolture Shire Council to provide copies of the building permit documentation for Binary Industries to demonstrate that the Building Code of Australia requirements for fire separation had been met. Counsellor Whiting simply responded “that’s slanderous!”. We would like to point out to Councillor Whiting that this was simply community right0to-know and the council should provide this information as a good will gesture rather than replying as if there was something to hide.

OTHER CONCERNS WITHIN THE NARANGBA INDUSTRIAL ESTATE

New Biodiesel Plants
The Caboolture Shire Council have recently approved the construction and commissioning of the 2 biodiesel plants that will each have an output of 160 million litres per year. The Council have also issued the Flammable and Combustible Liquids Licence to each of these plants that have storage capacities approaching 1 million litres on each site.

They have permitted the construction of spill containment bunds that are so close to the vertical tanks (in the order of 20 to 30 metres high) that there is no way known that they can comply with the Australian Standard AS1940-2004: The Storage and Handling of Flammable and Combustible Liquids, which has very specific conditions regarding the bunding of flammable and combustible liquids tanks. With the existing bund arrangement, the bund walls are as close as 2 to 2.5 metres away from the tanks, where AS1940 specifies that this should be in the order of 10-15 metres.

The term biodiesel does not mean that the diesel product is bio or eco-friendly. It is diesel that is produced using biological substances such as tallow that are waste from other industries. It will cause the same amount of environmental damage to the local waterways as normal petroleum-based diesel if it is spilled into the local creeks that flow into Deception Bay.

Fire Separation and Fire Protection
Some buildings in the Narangba Industrial Estate are in excess of the allowable floor area for no requiring firewalls. One such building was classified as car parking area in the Planning Permit so that it could escape the construction of one (or possibly two) fire separation walls (classification of a building as car park provides huge exemptions from fire separation requirements). Any Council Officer inspecting the building can clearly see that the area is used as a loading and unloading area for dangerous goods or even short term chemical storage, but it is certainly not used in any way for car parks.

There are a number of other examples where Australian Standard AS1940-2004: The Storage and Handling of Flammable and Combustible Liquids I not complied with in general. Caboolture Shire Council officers have failed to not only remedy these deficiencies, but have not even identified them.

As of 1st September 2006, all new building permits must be available by local governments over the internet. All building approvals for the Narangba Industrial Estate (and other hazardous industrial estates for that matter) must be retrospectively made available over the internet as a part of community right-to-know.

SUMMARY
The administration and management of regulatory matters within the Narangba Industrial Estate appears to be substantially lacking in accountability from all sides of government.

Being fair to the Caboolture Shire Council Environmental Health Officers, they are expected to administer a wide variety of legislation over industries ranging from chicken farms, meatworks, zoos, panel beaters – just to name a few. It can be honestly said that, without exception, that none of them should be allowed to regulate any aspect of dangerous goods, especially within the confines on the Narangba Industrial Estate as it will provide an escalating probability of disaster for the environment and the health of the local residences.

Local governments are going to allow the big developers, such as Stockland, to encroach far within what would be deemed to be acceptable buffer distances to the Narangba Industrial Estate. As good corporate citizens, they should not even be contemplating development within 1 kilometre of the nearest boundary of Narangba Industrial Estate I the interest of public safety and wellbeing. Most of the residences at the Stockland North Lakes Estate located to the south of the Narangba Industrial Estate were blissfully unaware the existence of the hazardous industries in this estate until the Binary Industries fire.

The old saying of “all care and no responsibility” does not even appear to apply to the various government agencies and developers as we have all observed the attitude of “no care and no responsibility”.

Due to the serious nature of the industries located within this estate, the local governments should not be involved in the regulatory aspects of this estate, as they are simply not equipped to handle it. The dangerous goods (flammable liquids) licensing should be reverted back to the state government by rescinding the delegations and reissuing them to the CHEM Unit and/or Workplace Health and Safety in the interest if exercising their duty of care to the community by not irresponsibly dispensing authority to those who simply do not have the knowledge or experience to identify the risks and communicate them to the industries and work with them to reduce all risks, which is a scenario that can simply not be maintained under the current arrangements.

There appears to be some areas of negligence involved in the Narangba Industrial Estate in general as well as the Binary Industries fire. As usually, nobody within the local and state government agencies will be held accountable or disciplined, instead they will more than likely be promoted and perpetuate the failings of the current system. Maybe they will be disciplined or dealt with after the next major chemical fire.