An abandoned coal processing plant is set to be torn down as part of plans to remediate a contaminated 8.2 hectare site at Kooragang.
A $1.37 million demolition application has been lodged with Newcastle council for the former Pacific Carbon devolatilisation plant at 544 Cormorant Road.
A coal coking facility, including the devolatilisation plant, was approved for the site in 2001. The plant has been inactive since 2014 when the former operator became insolvent.
The facility treated bituminous coal (black coal), to produce char for use in the steel manufacturing and alloy industries along with tar treatment for timber industries.
An exclusion zone has been established around the former plant due to safety concerns.
The landholder, LINX Industries, proposes to demolish and remove all structures related to the former plant.
The proposal includes mechanical demolition using a large excavator as well as non-explosive induced collapse.
A spokesperson for LINX said future plans for the site were yet to be determined.
Planning documents state the Environmental Protection Authority declared the land as "significantly contaminated" following a pollution reduction study in 2021.
The company has entered into a Voluntary Management Proposal (VPA) with the EPA to remediate the site.
The VPA is primary concerned with managing ammonia contamination of groundwater at the site, but the spokesperson said the proposed scope of works were also part of the remediation.
The proposed demolition of infrastructure will remove some of the contaminated material on site, including residual furnace residue and fine powders in and around the infrastructure.
"The demolition process would carefully manage the removal of this material to limit additional deposition on the site as part of the demolition process," the documents state.
The works are expected to take around 10 weeks and be complete by the end of June 2024, with the primary demolition of structures involving a period of four weeks within the expected time frame.
