North Cork Creameries, which came under the spotlight amid the fish kill on the Blackwater river, has had to suspend production after a pollution incident.
The dairy processor in Kanturk, Co Cork, was cleared of involvement in a large fish kill on the river in August. But repeated breaches of its environmental licence came to light in the investigation into that incident.
It has now emerged that the plant has had to stop production over the past two weeks after its main wastewater discharge pipe was found to have released effluent containing high levels of ammonia into the river Allow.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said it would not be permitted to resume discharging effluent until it had resolved the problem.
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North Cork Creameries has a history of breaching its permitted discharge licence, an issue that came under scrutiny during the investigation into the fish kill in August in the Blackwater, which the river Allow flows into.
The facility was cleared of involvement in the fish kill, but a subsequent investigation report and Oireachtas committee hearing into possible sources of contamination revealed repeated non-compliances with its discharge licence since it began operations in 2019.
The investigation report published in September stated that the facility was “a site with a history of failure to consistently achieve compliance with its licence discharge conditions”.
The interagency investigation was carried out by Inland Fisheries Ireland, the EPA, Cork County Council, the Marine Institute and Uisce Éireann.
Despite being prosecuted, convicted and fined in court last April, it went on to have further breaches from June to August which were “serious and entirely unacceptable”, the investigation report said.
“These compliance issues have not yet been fully resolved by the licensee, and the EPA is rigorously pursuing the enforcement of the licence breaches arising as a matter of priority and urgency,” added the report.
EPA records show that on November 11th, “high” levels of ammonia were detected in a sample of wastewater released to the Allow from the plant’s main discharge point.
The plant is permitted under its licence to discharge 0.5mg of ammonia per litre of wastewater, but the reading detected was 27mg – more than 50 times the allowed limit.
North Cork Creameries notified the EPA and stopped production at the plant to carry out corrective action but the EPA was not satisfied with the work when it carried out an on-site inspection on November 14th.
“EPA were not satisfied that compliance was satisfactorily restored and deemed that the discharges should not be resumed,” said the agency on Monday.
It said it directed North Cork Creameries to resolve the issue in the shortest possible time.
“North Cork Creameries are not currently discharging at SW1 [the main discharge point]. The agency awaits a response from North Cork Creameries in relation to compliance at SW1.
“North Cork Creameries will not be permitted to resume discharging effluent until EPA is satisfied that North Cork Creameries has made changes to bring their activities into compliance with their licence.”
Farmers who normally supply milk to the plant have been diverted to another plant in Cork.
In a statement, a representative of North Cork Creameries said: “We are co-operating fully with the EPA to ensure compliance with our licensed wastewater treatment requirements. We are investing very substantially in our facilities and operations in this regard.”
Dr Elaine McGoff of An Taisce, who holds a PhD in freshwater ecology, said the action by the EPA in effectively suspending production at the plant was welcome.
“It’s long overdue, given the really chronic noncompliance with licence conditions at the facility,” she said.
“It’s not good enough to treat each incident as an isolated, temporary issue if they keep being repeated.”
Dr McGoff said the difficulties at the plant must be resolved once and for all for the sake of the environment, the workers at the plant and for public confidence in the regulatory authorities.
