PRESS STATEMENT BY UPL SOUTH AFRICA
24 July 2022
UPL South Africa specialists brief interim Multi-Stakeholder Forum
Yesterday, UPL South Africa hosted an orientation meeting for members of the interim Multi-Stakeholder Forum (MSF) where its team of specialists presented on the work that has been conducted over the past year, following the arson attack on its Cornubia Warehouse on 12 July 2021. Officials from the eThekwini municipality also attended the meeting.
Presentations were delivered on air quality, human health, freshwater environment, wetlands, geology, groundwater, coastal and marine environments including sampling, clean up, remediation and rehabilitation work undertaken and success achieved over the past year.
PRESS
STATEMENT BY UPL SOUTH AFRICA
24 July 2022
UPL South Africa specialists brief interim Multi-Stakeholder Forum
Yesterday, UPL South Africa hosted an orientation meeting for members of the interim Multi-Stakeholder Forum (MSF) where its team of specialists presented on the work that has been conducted over the past year, following the arson attack on its Cornubia Warehouse on 12 July 2021. Officials from the eThekwini municipality also attended the meeting.
Presentations were delivered on air quality, human health, freshwater environment, wetlands, geology, groundwater, coastal and marine environments including sampling, clean up, remediation and rehabilitation work undertaken and success achieved over the past year.
Their work has included ongoing water, sediment and air testing as well as assessing certain parts of the food chain’s (trophic levels) health in the ecosystem and conducting and supervising, amongst other things, toxicity, herpetological (snakes/frogs), vegetation and entomological (insect) surveys of the site.
Some of the key findings presented to the interim MSF members include:
- Air quality surveys: continuous monitoring and testing for pollutants during and
after the fire revealed that, once the fire was extinguished harmful
pollutants were substantially lower while air borne dust samples no longer
contained arsenic.
- Water
quality surveys: ongoing testing of the estuary and marine
environments show that metal levels of arsenic, manganese, copper and zinc are now below the guideline levels set
for the South African coast (including estuaries). The emphasis remains on
continuing to decontaminate the warehouse site, the tributary and the
lower wetland, which will in turn see further significant improvements in
the estuary environment. When it comes to the Pollution Control Dam,
analysis from independent laboratories has shown low levels of residual
pesticides present, and low overall toxicity. Scientific modelling, which
looks at a number of factors, suggests that this water is now safe to
release into the system as, when combined with the water already there, it
will reach such significant dilution levels as to pose no harm to the
environment.
- Geohydrological and Soil surveys: the soil and sediment
samples in the tributary and estuary show some residual organic and
inorganic impacts, however the levels have decreased significantly when
compared to the initial sampling event. Some of the elevated levels are
due to naturally occurring compounds not associated with the UPL fire.
Finally, the surface water samples also revealed that none of the organic
or inorganic determinants exceeded the adopted RISC Screening Levels for
Water Used for Recreation.
- Human Health surveys: Testing and monitoring to determine human health impacts is
ongoing in the surrounding area in order to finalise the human health risk
assessment (HHRA) report. Encouragingly, it appears from both the testing
of first responders and on-site personnel, as well as those few people who
have attended the clinic set up by UPL in the neighbouring Blackburn
community, that there is very little by way of serious health impacts
attributable to either the fire or the spill.
Following the presentations, members of the interim MSF were
provided with an opportunity to pose questions to the team of specialists. It was agreed by all
participants that the meeting was constructive and helpful. There will be
discussion on the timing and form of future engagements, particularly with
regard to the public health risk assessment process, and the need to finalize
and implement the remediation action plan.
UPL South Africa is proud of the significant progress that has been achieved over the past year and remains committed to working with all stakeholders, including the MSF and government, when it comes to the ongoing rehabilitation work that continues on and around the warehouse site.
ENDS ///
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