Scrap dealer gets jail for long history of polluting

By ANNE BESTON

An Otara scrap-metal dealer has been jailed in what is only the second prison term handed down by the Environment Court and the first for pollution offences.

William Conway was sentenced to three months in jail and his firm, Cash for Scrap, fined $25,000 including costs.

Millennium Investments, the company that owns his Cash for Scrap site at Bairds Rd, was fined $15,000.

Conway is appealing against the jail term and said all scrap dealers "could now be in the same boat".

"Every car contains oil and if none of us bought scrap metal there would be junk lying everywhere," he said.

"We're recyclers, we are trying to help the community."

But the Auckland Regional Council said Conway's yard was a muddy, oily mess leaking contamination into nearby Tamaki Estuary.

"He is a persistent, habitual offender who refused point-blank to do what we asked him to do," said ARC compliance and enforcement officer Michael LeRoy-Dyson. "He was obstructive and, as of two weeks ago, there is still pollution happening at the yard."

Conway pleaded guilty to nine charges relating to contamination and failing to comply with enforcement and abatement notices.

Neighbours notified the ARC in May 2001 when up to three tonnes of oil seeped from the yard into a stream feeding into the estuary.

Conway had ordered a contractor to puncture 14 200-litre drums containing used engine oil on the banks of the stream.

Cars, engines and transmissions were being dismantled in the yard, with fuels, oils and hydraulic fluids draining into the ground.

Oil was found in stormwater drains and car batteries were stacked on the ground. Tests showed battery acid present in puddles.

Dye tests confirmed the site's stormwater system drained into the Tamaki Estuary.

Conway was ordered to close the yard, but he failed to comply. That order was followed by a number of court orders, but Conway continued trading.

Mr LeRoy-Dyson said there was no treatment or collection system at Cash for Scrap. Oil and contaminants should have been stored in containers on a sealed floor and disposed of by contractors.

The jail term "sent the right message", he said.

"It's naturally a messy industry - we don't expect you could eat off the floor - but other dealers appear to be able to get their heads around it."

In sentencing, Judge Jeremy Doogue said Conway had little time for regulations and restrictions.

Prison was appropriate because of Conway's long-standing disregard of abatement and enforcement notices.

"Unless a deterrent sentence is imposed I foresee that apparently ingrained habits of acting with disregard to the physical environment will re-emerge."