Smelter company ordered to upgrade emissions system

The Department of Environment Resources (DERM) has told Australia's largest aluminium smelter at Gladstone in central Queensland to upgrade its emissions monitoring system. In a statement, DERM says its investigation into Boyne Smelters Limited (BSL) , south of Gladstone, is now complete and there is no source of high risk to the community from the plant. But the Department has directed BSL to upgrade its air pollution monitoring and emissions systems. BSL general manager Brian Cooper says as a result of the $5 million study, BSL is committed to expanding the monitoring program to ensure potential impacts on the community are understood. The State Government instructed the company to undertake the study early last year after a fire in 2007, and over concerns that emissions being reported were too low.