EPA to review how Cork public was informed of harbour oil spill

A serious public health measure could easily have been missed says Social Democrats councillor

Social Democrats local councillor Liam Quaide says the public should have been informed sooner about the gas oil spill into Cork Harbour.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to conduct a review of how news of a gas oil spill into Cork Harbour was communicated to the public.

But it has defended its own pollution alerts system and said there is a duty of care on its licensees to keep the local community informed of significant events that may affect their area.

It was responding to criticism of how it alerted the public to the incident at the Irving Oil refinery in Whitegate, Co Cork, last week.

The company detected the leak at 9am on Monday, repaired the damage and notified the EPA that evening.

But the EPA did not publish details of the incident on its website until Wednesday, with advice to the public to avoid the area.

Midleton-based Social Democrats Cllr Liam Quaide said few people regularly consult this website, and a serious public health measure could easily have been missed. 

"This important information should have been conveyed via a press release,” he said.

In response to a series of questions from the Irish Examiner about its incident alerts system, the EPA said the operators of EPA licensed sites are obliged to report incidents to them “as soon as practicable” after the event, by telephone and in writing.

Licensees are also obliged to notify other public bodies as set out in their licence conditions, and that these public bodies have specific duties in response to particular types of incidents, it said.

“The licensee (Irving Oil) reported the gas oil spill to the EPA by telephone at 7.25pm on Monday 22,” it said.

“They also notified the Port of Cork, Irish Coast Guard, Cork County Council, and the Health and Safety Authority. The licensee also contacted a number of local businesses.” 

It said there is a duty of care on licensees to keep the local community informed of significant events and issues that may affect the locality, and that it has issued guidance to licensees on how this can be done.

“Part of our investigation will involve a review of the licensee’s actions and communications in response to the incident,” it said.

The EPA said it inspected the site on Tuesday as its investigation into the spillage got underway and to assess the extent of the incident, and that it published details of the incident on its website on Wednesday morning.

It said subsequent inspections were completed on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday with another update published on its website on Thursday evening.

“We will continue to issue updates until the incident has been closed,” it said.

“The EPA will continue to investigate the cause and extent of the impacts of this incident.

“The EPA will require the licensee to take all required corrective actions to remediate any environmental damage caused by this incident.

“In addition, the licensee will be required to implement preventative actions to prevent a similar situation from occurring again.”