Aughinish Alumina has informed the Garda of an orchestrated campaign to produce letters of complaint against the alumina-manufacturing company in Co Limerick.
An apology has been received from the instigator of the campaign along with retractions from six people, some of whom say they were told to sign a letter of complaint.
The presence of the bauxite-processing plant in west Limerick has been contentious for more than 10 years after livestock in the region began dying mysteriously in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
However, last week's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report of a multi-agency investigation into the animal deaths found that pollution levels from the plant or the nearby ESB generating stations of Moneypoint and Tarbert were not high enough to cause animal or human illness.
Mr Fleming added that six letters of apology were received from complainants in the area who were either unaware of the alleged pollution incident or had been persuaded to make the complaint.
The instigator of the campaign, Mr Michael Fitzgerald, Parkview, Shanagolden, had complained to the plant three times in the past two years about dust levels.
In a written apology, Mr Fitzgerald admitted he had got some people to write letters on his behalf complaining about the plant. According to one of the retractions, the writer was given a letter and told to sign it. "I did not know what was in it," he said.
Mr Fitzgerald, when contacted by The Irish Times, said he had done the wrong thing and acted on impulse in asking neighbours to support him.
In a development unrelated to the Garda complaints, Aughinish has called on the EPA to conduct a monitoring programme at a west Limerick farm following repeated complaints from one household in the area.
The Sheehy family of Toomdeely, outside Askeaton, complained of a strong causticlike smell and that a household member experienced a burning, itching sensation over five days in mid-May.
Mr Liam Fleming, environmental co-ordinator for Aughinish Alumina, told the EPA that he was unable to shed any light on the complaint and urged the EPA to establish its own monitoring programme.
One of the complaints, from Ms Dolores Sheehy, said the farm had been "smothered" from late May to the beginning of June, and horses and household members had developed skin problems. Mr Fleming said there were no significant events during the period.
"Aughinish Alumina has no grounds, and is not aware than anybody else has grounds, to believe that it may be implicated in the reported problems on the Sheehy farm," he said.
Aughinish, meanwhile, has apologised to the EPA for late notification of an effluent spillage which occurred at the plant on May 17th.
At the time, the company publicly rejected criticism by the EPA that it failed to promptly report the spillage of up to 50 cubic metres of dilute sodium aluminate when a pump failed and a bund overflowed.
At the time, a company spokesman said a comprehensive report was required under the licence and it had not been possible to provide this while the clean-up was under way.
Mr Fleming apologised in a statement to the EPA, saying efforts had been concentrated on the clean-up. According to an EPA officer's report in July, Mr Fleming agreed he should have notified the agency and other relevant authorities on the morning of the incident and not in the afternoon, around 12 hours after the accident occurred.
According to Mr Fleming's report, "a small fraction" of the spillage discharged on to the Shannon estuary shoreline through a surface water outfall point. "When the magnitude of the spillage became apparent, an emergency team of operators and contractors was assembled to clean up the spill age using suction bowsers," he said.
The clean-up included the gathering of caustic, contaminated topsoil into skips. The EPA inspector asked why no monitoring of the estuary and the surface water outfall point occurred. Mr Fleming replied that he did not see the monitoring as an option at the time and he was concentrating on the clean-up and investigation into what happened.
The 18-year-old company is owned by a privately-owned Swiss international resources group, Glencore, and has an ISO certificate for environmental management.