The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) received a vast bulk of complaints – 90% in fact – regarding odour and noise disruptions from the 889 industrial facilities it regulates last year. The majority of these complaints were associated with the food, drink and waste processing industries. In light of these complaints, the EPA carried out 22 prosecutions in the last year, amounting to fines of €137,750 and additional costs of €245,047, as reported in their Industrial and Waste Licence Enforcement Summary, released this past Wednesday.
For the first time, the EPA accomplished a successful District Court prosecution related to unlicensed peat extraction. The agency seeks to strategically manage its duties regarding peat enforcement and has brought attention to the issue with five local authorities, identifying where illegal peat extraction has been taking place.
To quote the EPA, “We have, and will continue to keep these operators to the mark.” In the previous year, it conducted over 1,200 surprise inspections at 535 licensed industrial and waste facilities.
An indispensable component of the EPA’s enforcement plan is its national priority sites list, which facilitates the targeting of licensed operators that exhibit the worst environmental conduct. In the past year, the EPA identified 11 such sites, including five in the food and drink sector and three in the waste sector.
The list included Arrabawn Co-op, Arrow Group, Aurivo Consumer Foods, Eras Eco Ltd, Euroflext Teoranta, Forge Hill Recycling, Gairdini/Munster Joinery, North Cork Co-op Creameries, Timoleague Agri Gen Ltd, Tipperary Co-op Creamery, and Wellman International. Out of these, only three sites still remain a priority: North Cork Co-Op Creameries, Timoleague Agri Gen Ltd and Wellman International.
Since its introduction in 2017, the list has highlighted 50 priority sites, 17 of which are located in Cork.
The report includes details of locations that were frequently visited last year, more than ten times. The most frequent were Killarney Waste Disposal in Co Kerry with 37 visits, Arrow Group with 26 and Eras Eco, receiving 19 visits.
In the previous year, there was a sharpened attention towards the administration and post-care of closed dumps, experiencing two legal actions against local authorities for insufficient management of leachate and landfill gas facilities.
The EPA, in addition to monitoring the licensed sites potentially affecting water quality as per the EU Water Framework Directive, highlighted efforts to enhance drainage systems for surface water.
The number of complaints regarding these sites reduced by 36 percent in last year due to enforcement actions taken by the EPA, falling from 1,490 in 2021 to 960.
Dr Tom Ryan, the director of EPA’s office of environmental enforcement, underlined the notable decline in complaint numbers following the amplified focus by EPA on improving odour and noise management at licensed sites.
Dr Ryan also said that the EPA will continue to concentrate on any nuisances caused by licensed sites and will legally intervene if necessary.