Many of the State's power generating stations will be forced to close if they cannot comply with increasingly demanding environmental standards, the Environmental Protection Agency has warned.
This will apply to the State's largest power plant, the ESB facility at Moneypoint, Co Clare, said EPA director Mr Iain MacLean, as the agency confirmed its move to subject the energy sector to integrated pollution-control licensing.
Mr MacLean stressed that "all existing power stations would shut" unless substantial investment is secured to help fulfil IPC obligations. That included Moneypoint, he said, unless its emissions were curtailed by investment in the process of "flue-gas desulphurisation" (to contain the most noxious pollutants) or switching the plant to using gas.
Energy issues and the disposal of agricultural wastes were among the "significant remaining challenges" in controlling pollution arising from industry.
How best to deal with the land-spreading of waste such as slurry was particularly pressing, he said. It remained to be seen if it should be regulated by IPC licensing, and the issue of "how far, how soon" needed to be carefully determined.
It is likely farmers, meat-processing plants and food companies will soon be required to treat their wastes before any disposal on land, though the EPA accepts such a regime places considerable economic demands on sectors such as the pig industry. Pre-treatment would give rise to a by-product which could be more safely disposed of.
With so much ammonia and methane arising from agriculture, the treatment of waste before applying it to land arose because of the State's commitments to reducing greenhouse gases under the Kyoto protocol and its targets for the reduction of acidification.
Small piggeries will also be subject to IPC controls while all IPC licence holders will soon have to meet the environmentally demanding requirement known as BAT (best available technology) rather than the more common BATNEEC (best available technology not entailing excessive costs) provision.
