Bob Pullinger, from Truegain, said the company was being used as a scapegoat after the Department of Environment and Climate Change publicly announced last month that it had notified the Rutherford-based plant its operating licence was to be suspended.

He told reporters at a media conference in Rutherford yesterday that he was absolutely certain the plant was not the source of the odour problems in west Maitland.

“I feel that our company has always operated in the best possible method,” he said.

“The department subsequently picked up on what we believed to be a minor afterburning matter on our site – a technical matter, not an odour-causing matter.”

On Wednesday, the Land and Environment Court in Sydney stayed the licence suspension pending an appeal.

Mr Pullinger said if the company’s operations were suspended, Truegain employees would be staring down the barrel of unemployment.

“To put it simply, Truegain would probably sink all together if our licence was suspended,” he said.

“This would be a $60 million stab to the heart of the local economy and 30 local jobs gone, and dozens of contractors and suppliers who rely on us would be put in jeopardy.

“The Rutherford plant is the backbone of Australian Waste Oil Refineries’ statewide operations and, if it’s broken, there’s an extreme risk all our operations will be crippled.”

Mr Pullinger told reporters the plant was constantly upgrading their environmental monitoring systems and working to ensure their licences were complied with.

He said Truegain was going to appoint independent environmental consultants and air-quality experts to oversee the plant’s operations.

“It’s hard not to think that we’re being scapegoated so the impression can be created that something is being done about the odour problems,” Mr Pullinger said.

“We plead for people to rely on factual and tangible evidence, which is hard because there’s not a lot of that around at the moment.”

Karen Turner from the Maitland Anti-Stink Group attended the conference and told the Mercury she just wanted the odour issue solved.

“Everyone can sympathise with employees facing the prospect of losing their jobs, but this doesn’t need to happen,” she said.

“What we’re after is for them to clean up their act, not to put people out of jobs.”