TD wants EPA and Inland Fisheries Ireland to account for their actions after Blackwater fish kill

Reports on at least 10 companies the EPA has said it is 'considering' are due to be published in the coming days
TD wants EPA and Inland Fisheries Ireland to account for their actions after Blackwater fish kill

One of the fish affected by the recent fish kill in the River Blackwater, Co Cork. Picture: Dan Linehan

A TD has called for the Environmental Protection Agency and Inland Fisheries Ireland to account for their actions in relation to what is Ireland's biggest fish kill.

Up to 50,000 fish died in the River Blackwater after pollution on or around August 11 is believed to have entered the river via one of its tributaries, the River Allow.

Since then, the EPA and IFI have launched a number of investigations to find out who or what caused it, but they have yet to formally isolate the source of the pollution.

Labour’s Eoghan Kenny said: “This is just not good enough. I have asked for these two bodies to be brought into the Environment Committee and for them to have to make an account of their actions from the moment they were informed there was a problem.

“The response, certainly as far as the public is concerned, has been vague and at all times in need of far more clarity than has been afforded to people to date."

Since the fish kill was first reported on August 11, IFI has published seven reports. Three of these are EPA lab test reports on samples from the River Blackwater after the incident was reported.

A fourth is an updated report on an earlier Marine Institute diagnostic test on samples from the river.

The other reports related to a site visit carried out by the EPA on August 12 at North Cork Creameries in Kanturk as part of its ongoing attempt “to investigate reports of a fish kill incident on the Blackwater River downstream”.

On the day they were visited by the EPA, North Cork Creameries told the officials they “had reason to believe” that discharge from a discharge point into the River Allow from the creamery “may have caused environmental pollution”.

In addition, the EPA noted it was told by North Cork Creameries staff that “untreated and partially-treated effluent was being taken off-site by a road tanker as needed to reduce the load” on the waste water treatment plant.

North Cork Creameries is adamant that it is not to blame for the extensive Blackwater fish kill.

In a statement it said: “In spite of the non-compliant water quality test result noted in the immediate area of our licensed wastewater outflow, it needs to be understood that the water contents and their levels identified by that test are NOT at any level that could possibly have killed fish or caused the extreme chemical injury to fish that took place 10km away in the River Blackwater near Lombardstown."

Other reports on at least another 10 companies the EPA has said it is "considering" are due to be published in the coming days.

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