The State’s environmental watchdog is examining whether a Co Mayo meat plant will breach restrictions imposed to prevent emissions of a dangerous pollutant from a proposed incinerator.
The Environmental Protection Agency is reviewing the terms of a licence granted to dispose of animal waste at Dawn Meats in Ballyhaunis after a discrepancy arose in documentation over levels of sulphur dioxide likely to be emitted from the incinerator.
Dawn Meats, the largest processor of lamb in Europe and the leading processor of beef in the UK and Ireland, has been forced to stop sending meat-and-bone meal to the UK for incineration due to Brexit. It proposes to dispose of it under EPA licence by converting it to bioenergy.
Documents seen by The Irish Times – shared by SourceMaterial, a non-profit investigative journalism organisation – indicate the plant would exceed legal limits for sulphur dioxide, which can cause respiratory illnesses.
The leaked documents, originally given to the environmental organisation Climate Whistleblowers based in Paris, include technical specifications produced by Valfortec, a Spanish energy company contracted to build the incinerator.
In one document, a spreadsheet, Valfortec pasted a screenshot of the EU limit for sulphur dioxide emissions – 50mg per cubic metre. Next to it, the company recorded the predicted emissions for the plant at 80mg per cubic metre. It highlighted the higher figure in red.
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Internal data appears to contradict information the company submitted to the EPA when it discussed applying for permission for the project in 2022. Here, Dawn Meats said the plant – which employs up to 500 people – would emit 50mg per cubic metre of sulphur dioxide – complying with the law.
In one message to Valfortec last year, a senior Dawn Meats manager wrote they should follow EU regulations that apply strict limits to emissions from burning animal byproducts, including the sulphur dioxide limit of 50mg.
Earlier that year, however, Dawn Meats formally told the EPA it would only need to comply with a looser limit, used by the EU to regulate other types of combustion plants – 400mg per cubic metre. The EPA accepted this and granted the amended licence.
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The Department for Agriculture subsequently confirmed 50mg was the correct limit for a plant of this kind. When SourceMaterial contacted the EPA about this, it said it would re-examine the legislation “to ensure the most appropriate legislative limits have been applied in this case”.
The EPA has confirmed that in December 2023 it amended the licence for Dawn Meats to allow for use of meal as a fuel in a “water tube steam boiler”. It had since become aware of a technical issue in relation to how EU regulations and directives apply in this particular case.
“EPA inspectors are currently re-examining the emission limits for the boiler exhaust in the amended licence to ensure the most appropriate legislative limits have been applied and to determine if a further amendment is necessary,” it added.
The plant “has had a good level of compliance with nine notifications of non-compliance since 2015″, it said. None related to sulphur dioxide emissions.
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Dawn Meats operates a beef-and-lamb slaughtering facility in Ballyhaunis. Western Proteins attached to the plant renders animal byproducts from its plants in the Republic. After UK outbreaks of mad cow disease, the EU prohibited use of MBM to feed livestock.
Currently, most of the 60,000 tonnes of MBM Ireland produces annually is exported to the UK for incineration. Ireland is not permitted under EU law to continue to do this but has a derogation until 2025. As a consequence, Dawn Meats intends to use it as a renewable energy source tied into a Department of Agriculture scheme.
A company spokesman said: “The site is at the design stage of an enhanced process, involving the installation of a new steam boiler which, once operational, will significantly reduce carbon emissions, support the circular economy and eliminate fossil fuel consumption from the current process.
“The site already does and will continue to use the best available technologies to maintain compliance with all applicable limits as determined by EU and Irish law.”
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