Investigation after discharge and fish kill reports close to Cork oil refinery
'The EPA noted dead fish trapped in a tidal pool and rock pools about 400m north of the discharge points from Irving Oil.'
An investigation has been launched into reports of a discharge and fish kill in Cork’s lower harbour close to Ireland’s only oil refinery.
However, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said a direct link with a discharge from Irving Oil, which has a number of discharge pipes in the Whitegate area, had yet to be established.
The EPA confirmed it was notified by a member of the public at about 6.20pm on Sunday about a “white-coloured discharge with solvent-type odour” from a discharge pipe reportedly associated with the Irving Oil refinery.
It was also reported dead fish were observed on the shoreline near the pipeline.
In a statement on Tuesday, the EPA said its staff inspected the Corkbeg Beach area and met with staff from Irving Oil on Monday.
“The EPA noted dead fish trapped in a tidal pool and rock pools about 400m north of the discharge points from Irving Oil,” the EPA said.
“A solvent-type release from the site has not been detected and the cause of the white discolouration in the discharge from an Irving Oil pipe is under investigation.
“Samples have been taken from discharge points and receiving waters and a site visit report and monitoring report will be available in due course.
“It is noted that this issue is not related to the oil spill incident from earlier in 2024.
“The compliance investigation relating to the oil spill incident is expected to be closed soon once updates in relation to the remediation programme have been finalised.”
Irving Oil has not yet responded to requests for comment.
Last January, the company notified a spill of gas oil to the EPA after a leak from a small gauge pipe onto a marshy area below it and then into the waters of Cork Harbour.
It mobilised a spill team and undertook efforts to recover oil from the marshy area and to minimise the extent of impact to the harbour, beaches and surrounding areas, including the use of oil absorbent containment booms.
It later began using vacuum tankers in the marsh area to recover spilled gas oil close to the site of the leak.
By early February, the company confirmed a total of 14.2m cubed of gas oil was lost during the leak, and its specialist spill response contractors had physically recovered about 12.5 cubic metres and returned it to the refinery for reprocessing.
The remaining material was largely contained within the marshy area adjacent to Corkbeg Island, the EPA.
It also confirmed there had been no observations or reports of any impacts on bird or fish populations in Cork Harbour.
In an update in early March, the EPA said the company was still using low-pressure washing, containment by floating booms and recovery by absorbent materials to clean up after the spillage.
Water sampling and ecological assessments were also continuing at selected locations around Cork Harbour and the results at that stage showed evidence of oil was effectively restricted to Whitegate Bay.
Ecologists had observed no significant impacts on the aquatic ecology of the shoreline or the harbour, beyond localised coating of seaweed along rocky shoreline areas in Whitegate Bay, it said.
