Cadbury factory's chemical problem may have caused River Derwent sewage emergency, documents show

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The Cadbury factory in Hobart breached its trade waste discharge limits for at least 12 days before TasWater found out, right-to-information documents show. It caused the deterioration of a wastewater treatment plant, resulting in sewage flowing into the River Derwent next to the Museum of Old and New Art (Mona), causing public health alerts. TasWater demanded Cadbury parent company Mondelez pay the cost for bringing the plant back online, while two investigations are continuing into the series of events.

Transcript

00:00Beaches closed, the public told to stay out of the water, and a growing effluent plume

00:07near one of Tasmania's most popular tourist sites, the Museum of Old and New Art.

00:13The environmental emergency in the River Derwent one week out from Christmas last year triggered

00:18a public health response, but how did it happen?

00:22Further up the river sits the Cadbury Chocolate Factory.

00:26It continuously creates sugary trade waste, which it treats on-site, before sending it

00:31to the Cameron Bay sewage plant near Mona.

00:34Emails and reports obtained by the ABC show how the chocolate by-product developed into

00:40a sewage crisis.

00:42On November 28, Cadbury took a key part of its on-site waste water treatment offline

00:48for replacement.

00:50In the interim, it planned to chemically treat the waste before it went to the sewage plant.

00:55By December 4, Cadbury's trade waste concentration was already exceeding TasWater's limit.

01:02It turns out Cadbury couldn't obtain a key treatment chemical until December 12.

01:08On December 13, TasWater issued a process upset notification for failure at its Cameron

01:14Bay sewage plant.

01:16TasWater didn't get monitoring data from Cadbury until December 16.

01:21By then, the trade waste had killed the bugs that are meant to treat public sewage.

01:27On December 19, TasWater issued Cadbury a breach notice, threatening to cut the site

01:32off from its sewage network.

01:35That night, a public health alert was issued, warning people to stay out of the River Derwent.

01:41In its root cause analysis, Cadbury parent company Mondelēz said it had to change its

01:46dosing when it couldn't obtain the right waste treatment chemical.

01:50It also blamed loose pipe connections and the need for manual dosing.

01:54TasWater treated the sewage with chlorine and Cadbury started land-spreading its excess

02:00trade waste.

02:01TasWater and the EPA say they are continuing to investigate the incident.

02:06Mondelēz says it's working with the regulators.

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