A dairy plant close to the river Blackwater in Co Cork said it was “entirely impossible” that it was responsible for pollution that anglers estimate killed 40,000 fish in the river a fortnight ago.
North Cork Creameries said it was “not connected” with the large-scale fish kill that took place on August 12th on the river in the area of Lombardstown, despite Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) tests which found the co-op was not in compliance with its discharge licences.
“There is nothing at any level of concentration or content in the wastewater effluent outflow from North Cork Creameries that could possibly have caused the appalling levels of injury and death to fish that took place near Lombardstown - which is a full 10km away from our facility,” it said in a statement on Sunday.
Normal river and fish activity continued at the location of the plant, the company said, which is upstream of where the fish kill occurred.
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“The fish kill is a deeply serious and distressing event for the entire community. But it is an equally serious issue, and essential, to ensure accountability that is based on evidence, not assumption. Unfounded claims, speculation, or selective use of information risk misleading the public and unfairly damaging reputation,” the statement said.
The EPA took a “grab sample” of effluent discharge at the creamery on the afternoon of August 12th. The co-op was found to be “non compliant with its licence” at the time of the agency site visit, the EPA said. One non-compliance notice was also issued in relation to incident notification.
Tests indicated that ammonia, orthophosphate and phosphorus levels were above the permitted amount. A spokeswoman for the EPA said a full report interpreting this data will be made available in due course.
“As this investigation is still ongoing we are not in a position to discuss the results further,” she said.
North Cork Creameries said it had been working with the EPA over a period of months to ensure compliance with its wastewater emission licence. “This already existing EPA process should not and must not be misinterpreted or conflated into the Blackwater incident,” its statement said.
“Following the incident, the EPA stated that their investigation had found no causal link between our site and the fish kill in the river Blackwater. Furthermore, local EPA officials themselves have recently described water quality in the river Allow (both upstream and downstream of our facility) as ‘good’ which is the second highest grade for river water quality,” the company said.
EPA officials attended and observed normal fish activity in the river Allow, beside the plant, on August 12th, the company said.
The company said it was aware of the “grab water” test results. “In spite of the non-compliant water quality test result noted in the immediate area of our licensed wastewater outflow, it needs to be understood that the water contents and their levels identified by that test are not at any level that could possibly have killed fish or caused the extreme chemical injury to fish that took place 10km away in the river Blackwater near Lombardstown.”
It was, the company said, “entirely impossible, wrong and incorrect for anyone to state that we are connected with the fish kill 10km away in the greater river Blackwater”.
In a statement last week, the EPA said, “Given the distance between the North Cork Creameries discharge and the Blackwater, the volume of water in both rivers and the good ammonia levels in the Blackwater at that time, it is considered that the North Cork Creameries discharge could not have caused the fish kill in the Blackwater.”
North Cork Creameries said today it was aware of “assorted rumour-mongering and innuendo circulating on social media which serves only to mislead.
“We encourage concerned parties to focus only on evidence rather than fuelling speculation, unnecessary exaggeration or unfounded rumour that distracts from the real issue which is to establish the truth of what caused this incident.”
