Jurors find Linc guilty
ENERGY company Linc Energy has been found guilty of all charges of causing environmental damage. Jurors delivered their verdicts at Brisbane District Court yesterday. Linc, in liquidation, was not in court to defend the charges of causing serious environmental damage at Chinchilla. But five not guilty pleas were entered on January 29, the day the trial started. Nobody was in the dock and no defence lawyers were in court during the long, unusual trial.
Jurors heard discussions about how Linc’s underground coal gasification or UCG activities impacted the environment.
Years of company documents were dug up for the trial, including internal emails which suggested the company was warned about risks to groundwater.
The jurors were told that in July 2009, the Linc UCG team presented a report to the Linc board. The team said failures in early operations known as G2 and G3 were due to issues including “reliance on Uzbek consultants”.
The report said G2 was abandoned in a “clumsy” way, with water pumped back into wells in an attempt to extinguish gasification.
Meanwhile, already permeable coals were made even more permeable through fracking, former Linc gas operator Ray Cowie added in a report later that year.
Last year, it was reported the clean-up bill for environmental contamination at the Linc cite could reach almost $80million - and taxpayers would have to fork out.
The Supreme Court in March last year ruled Linc’s liquidators for Linc Energy were not responsible.
That court upheld an appeal from liquidators Stephen Longley, Grant Sparks and Martin Ford against an earlier order holding them liable for land rehabilitation around the former Chinchilla site.
The trial came after the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection claimed Linc allowed methane, hydrogen, carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulphide to leak from the Hopeland site between 2007 and 2013.
Sentencing before Judge Michael Shanahan was set down for May 11.
- News Regional