Linc pollution mega-trial finally wrapping up

A POLLUTION trial years in the making is finally wrapping up.

Linc Energy, in liquidation, faces five counts of wilfully and unlawfully causing serious environmental damage at Chinchilla. The company was accused of causing damage at its underground coal gasification, or UCG sites.

On Day 48 of the trial, Judge Michael Shanahan summed the case up to jurors in Brisbane District Court.

Whether people got ill and the odours detected at the site were issues jurors had to put to one side.

For the charges of causing serious environmental harm to stack up, jurors must find Linc wilfully and unlawfully caused such damage.

The court heard one definition of “serious environmental harm” involved harm that cost more than $50,000 to clean up.

Judge Shanahan said jurors must decide if senior managers’ decisions were decisions “of the corporation itself ”.”

That was different from people acting merely as “agents” of the company, the judge added.

Jurors would have to assess any knowledge, omissions or responsibilities Linc decisionmakers had.

Prosecutors said concerns were raised at various times with Linc leadership about the quality of cement and geological data at the site. The jury retired to consider the evidence yesterday. – NewsRegional