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Newcastle Herald
Newcastle Herald
National
Ian Taggart, Keith Craig and Jennifer Allen

Newcastle learnings from Beirut ammonium nitrate blast

CRUCIAL QUESTION: "Name any other city in the world that can surpass our stored volume within close proximity of a city centre?"

The international learnings from the August 2020 ammonium nitrate (AN) explosion in Beirut arguably shows that Newcastle shares a similar malaise in regards to the placing of what is probably the world's largest stockpile of potentially explosive AN material close to a city centre.

Increasingly, companies are realising the corporate identity, corporate reputation and their social contract to operate, go far beyond mere compliance with state regulations.

This becomes more troubling when we find that NSW regulations are out of step with other Australian states and international standards.

The BBC, the journal Nature, Al Jazeera and National Geographic magazine have run recent feature articles on AN and storage. These articles explain the nature of AN, (all too numerous) past misadventures, and where it had, and sometimes continues to be, stored worldwide in large quantities in proximity to population centres.

AN is a relatively stable oxidising agent used in the agricultural and explosives industries, but the misadventures are not just restricted to developing nations. Significantly, it is now understood from Beirut that there were repeated written requests, over several years, from port officials to the authorities (magistrates and politicians) to remove their warehoused quantity of AN.

A BBC survey article listed similar quantities of AN stored (and often moved) on the African continent ranging from 2000-3000 tonnes. Newcastle was mentioned, but tonnage levels were not given.

While the Hunter is not Beirut, so far we share the same indifference to requests to reduce the large volume of ammonium nitrate.

One takeaway from these review articles is that Newcastle, where up to 12,000 tonnes of AN is stored in a single facility, is likely to be the world record holder for the amount of AN within 3 kilometres of a city centre. A question that should be reasonably put to every politician that chooses to express an opinion on the community risk is to "name any other city in the world that can surpass our stored volume within close proximity of a city centre?".

The risk is most readily removed and managed by storing, in safer surroundings, the AN closer to the destination point of the Hunter coalmines.

AN is a relatively stable product that requires misadventure to become explosive. The risk equation is therefore one of very low probability multiplied by a consequence of epic proportions. It is precisely because of the consequences that large storage sites of AN get moved away from populated centres elsewhere.

For some reason, this message falls on deaf ears in the Hunter. Why this remains so is both curious and startling.

The culture present in Australian companies is part of the Newcastle situation. One now dated attitude towards safety is that compliance with local standard is good enough, and that if legislation and guidelines are different in other states or countries, then that is not relevant.

If we look overseas to top listed NYSE (Fortune 500 ) companies with this style of thinking have been replaced by an awareness that company identity, reputation and ability to be a good community partner (i.e. social contract) is crucial. Successful companies are therefore increasingly concerned about their reputation perception.

In the case of Orica, on the subject of AN, one of their community letter drops proclaimed that due to their learnings from past bad environmental record (leaks on Kooragang Island and elsewhere), that they can be better trusted into the future. This is an interesting and creative way to deflect the narrative and provides dubious confidence going forward.

Public company shareholders and community stakeholders, increasingly hold companies accountable to high social values. Modern companies increasingly promote a culture that is more aligned, and even exceeding, the social values of their shareholders. Compared with the US experience, Australian companies appear to be slower on this uptake.

Finally, we in the Hunter are told by politicians and state watchdogs that the stockpile of AN close to a city centre is nothing to worry about, and that the plant operator is compliant and continues to rely on compliance to justify the ongoing storage.

So while the Hunter is not Beirut, so far we share the same indifference to requests to reduce the large volume of AN. The final sobering thought is that 12,000 tonnes of AN equates to roughly half the yield of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

We ask the companies and shareholders involved in the massive storage of AN to consider the implied social contract and concerns of community, and reconsider the relocation of the stored AN volumes.

Ian Taggart, Keith Craig and Jennifer Allen are from Stockton Community Group

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