Environmental officer denies fish kill claims

An environmental officer for one of the firms facing charges relating to an alleged fish kill denies it was a fish kill and says a “negligible” number died.

Peter Quigley, an environmental health and safety manager for Wills Bros, was continuing his evidence about the May 10, 2017, incident in which Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) claims as many as 400 fish died during works on the Bandon river — currently one of the biggest drainage projects in Europe.

Byrne Looby Partners Water Services Ltd, contracted on the flood relief project by the Office of Public Works, Rivus Ltd, of Clonmel, Co Tipperary, and Wills Bros Ltd, Foxford, Co Mayo, all face two charges under the Fisheries (Consolidation) Act 1959 as amended, of injuring or disturbing a spawning bed, bank of shallow where the spawn or fry of salmon, trout, or eels may be, and of injuring or disturbing the spawn or fry of salmon, trout, or eels. They deny the charges.

Mr Quigley described how the stretch of the Bandon river in which the work is being carried out had been sectioned off into taskwork areas and how the issue on May 10 last year occurred in section J. He said a number of mitigation measures were selected as the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) had said the impact otherwise would have been “permanent, significant, and negative”. With the mitigation efforts, that impact was to be reduced to a permanent moderate level.

He said it had been decided that other steps would be taken, such as restricting works from May to September, from 8am to 6pm, and that a maximum of 60% of river flows be blocked at any one time.

"This is a very serious intervention into an undisturbed river,” said Mr Quigley, adding that, given the large scale of the project, there was “some element of novelty” in planning it.

Mr Quigley was not in Bandon in the day of the alleged fish kill but relayed what he had been told through phone calls from some of those present. He referred to an earlier incident from May 8 last year when an area on the river had started to “dry out”. He later admitted to Stephen O’Donoghue, for Rivus, that the possibility of a pooled area drying out had been “on the radar”.

He said that on the day, everything was in place as it should have been. The court had been told on a previous occasion that as many as 400 fish may have died when water drained from a pooled area near a haul road, but Mr Quigley said figures provided on the claim form afterwards numbered in the tens and he, based on photos he had seen, believes it was a smaller number again and that no adult fish were killed.

He was asked if he believes Wills Bros complied with all requirements and answered: “We believe we have, yes.”

Mr Quigley said he believes no adult fish were involved and said the loss of 30 fry equates to one-third of a salmon in the river, adding there is “always an attrition rate”.

“When I read these numbers I think ‘OK, that’s negligible’.” Later, he said: “We have shifted hundreds of thousands of fish out of the way of harm in this.”

The case continues in November.