The Age (Australia): Oil spill, plume cost Shell $10,000
“SHELL Australia has been fined $10,000 after an Environment Protection Authority investigation of two incidents at the oil giant’s Geelong refinery. The EPA said yesterday two $5000 penalty notices had been issued against Shell for breaches of its licence.”
Friday September 30, 2005
By Ewin Hannan
SHELL Australia has been fined $10,000 after an Environment Protection Authority investigation of two incidents at the oil giant’s Geelong refinery.
The EPA said yesterday two $5000 penalty notices had been issued against Shell for breaches of its licence.
The first incident occurred in May when oil leaked from a pipe on the refinery’s jetty into Corio Bay. The second involved a visible plume from the refinery’s sulphur recovery unit stack.
The EPA’s executive director of regional services, Bruce Dawson, said that while the oil spilt into the bay was a “fairly small amount, it’s something we believe further maintenance and management by Shell could have avoided”.
He said Shell’s EPA licence required no visible plume from the stack.
” While this was an unintentional breach of the licence conditions, the EPA’s investigations revealed that further maintenance planning and precautions could have helped avoid the situation,” Mr Dawson said.
The EPA was considering action against Shell over an oil spill into Corio Bay in April.
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AdvertisementThe authority is also completing an investigation into the effectiveness of Shell’s air monitoring equipment and the company’s failure to have the system accredited.
“Shell’s licence places important requirements on Shell’s performance,” Mr Dawson said. “Significant investment is needed in the refinery’s operations to ensure that these types of incidents can be avoided in the future.
“Shell needs to continue to place an emphasis on improving the environmental performance of the refinery.”
Shell’s acting refinery manager, Alan Greaves, said yesterday the company took its “environmental responsibility very seriously”. “Our vastly improved performance during the past three years is testimony to our efforts,” he said.
“We are also investing tens of millions of dollars on improvements to further protect our environment.
“The changes can’t happen overnight, but they are certainly under way and we are working hard to complete them.
“We regret any impact these incidents caused, particularly in relation to the plume, which occurred during routine maintenance. We plan extensively for this sort of work. However, sometimes the unexpected happens and it did.”
Sue McLean, spokeswoman for a group called Geelong Community for Good Life, welcomed the fines. “I am pleased the EPA has, in particular, taken action over the plume from the stack,” she said.
“However, the incident is potentially worse than depicted by the EPA. It is the cumulative impact of these licence breaches that seriously impacts on community health.”
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
