The Environmental Management Inspectorate (Green Scorpions) today executed search warrants at two premises in the Free State, the Welkom Showground and a farm 25 kilometres outside of Welkom.
The search of these premises confirmed that healthcare risk waste (medical waste) has been buried at these sites instead of being treated and disposed of as required by law.
The raids at these sites around Welkom have revealed that a significant amount of medical waste has been buried, including sharps, viles, syringes, drips, dirty bandages and general medical waste.
This poses a significant health risk to the businesses and communities surrounding these areas. Medical waste includes anatomical waste (amputated legs, arms, placentas, foetus, etc.), pharmaceutical waste (old tablets and medicine) and general medical waste (used syringes, used medical gloves, blood stained clothes, blood samples, etc.) which poses a health and bio-hazard risk to the people that may come into contact with it, as well as a risk that significant harm may be caused to the environment (pollution of soil and underground water and surface water resources).
This is in contravention of a number of provisions of the National Environmental Management: Waste Act which came into effect on 3 July 2009. The maximum penalties for committing these offences are R10 million or 10 years imprisonment or both. The execution of the warrants focused on excavated areas of the site to confirm the illegal burying of the waste. Large areas, however, were not excavated at this stage in order to limit the risks pending the clean ups of the sites. Urgent notices are being prepared to require these sites to be cleaned up and rehabilitated.
This follows on from last week, when the department executed search warrants simultaneously in Gauteng, Free State and KwaZulu-Natal on the premises of Wasteman Group a company responsible for managing and disposing of waste which revealed serious contraventions of a number of provisions of the National Environmental Management: Waste Act.
The search last week included Wasteman’s head office in Johannesburg, Wasteman incinerator at Klerksdorp in the North West province, Wasteman’s treatment facility in Durban KwaZulu-Natal and Maximus Bricks in Welkom Industria. The search conducted at Maximus Bricks revealed that hundreds of tons of waste had been taken from the two facilities in KwaZulu-Natal and North West to the Maximus Bricks site, to be illegally buried.
We are currently investigating possible links between the raid on Friday and today’s raid.
All operations have ceased on the site of Maximus Brick in Welkom as per the compliance notice issued last week. This includes the manufacturing of bricks, transporting and burying of health care risk waste, general waste and any other operation primary or secondary to these business ventures.
As per the compliance notice appropriately trained security personnel have been appointed to ensure 24 hour controlled access to this property.
Maximus Bricks has employed the services of a hazardous waste management company to remove all waste from the site using appropriate methods and dispose thereof at a licensed hazardous waste disposal site. However, work on the site in relation to the clean up cannot proceed until the department has approved such methods of clean up and disposal.
The waste management company also needs to undertake a risk waste assessment of the site as well as provide timeframes within which all waste must be removed to a licensed waste facility.
An investigation into illegal dumping of healthcare risk is ongoing by the Department of Environmental Affairs.
For media queries contact:
Albi Modise
Cell: 083 490 2871
Roopa Singh
Cell: 082 225 3076
Issued by: Department of Environmental Affairs
2 December 2009
