Tamworth Regional Council refuses Thomas Foods International waste fee reduction, warns industry compliance is important

The huge local food processing industry has been warned compliance with wastewater standards is not optional after Tamworth Regional Council refused a request from a major abattoir to have its fees reduced.

Thomas Foods International (TFI) will have to cough up almost $150,000 for trade waste non-compliance amid equipment failure in August this year.

"There is an integral part of these large business operators to actually have their own detection operating and functional at all times," Cr Bede Burke told a council meeting on Tuesday night.

He said it was a warning to all abattoirs and high water users that they need to have systems in place so they can make any detections and fix the problems before they become major and expensive.

Council's water and waste director Bruce Logan explained council took trade waste samples to work out how much the charges should be, not to inform the discharging business.

He said it was "wrong" to wait for council's advice because poor quality water should be detected before it even ended up in council's treatment plant.

READ ALSO:

Cr Brooke Southwell said council needed to stick to its guns when push came to shove.

"We need to be consistent with our own policies, or else why should we adopt them," she said. "We must ensure compliance with our trade waste standards so that it's fair and equitable for all, and to ensure we are protecting our environment."

She said it was clear that a number of issues led to the company being slapped with the high charges.

Cr Judy Coates agreed it had been a tough time for TFI but said council had to "send a message" that council would not accept anything that's damaging to the environment and that companies had to have checks in place.

TFI was allowed to expand its processing capacity at its West Tamworth lamb abattoir in 2016. A new wastewater facility was built as part of the approval.

The meeting heard TFI had indicated it was putting systems in place in the aftermath of the recent issues.

TFI was contacted for comment.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: