Dereliction of duty by EPA

THE gravity of the spillage of 60,000 gallons of 14pH caustic soda into Monkstown Bay in Cork three hours before high water around midnight on Saturday July 2/Sunday July 3 appears to have escaped the notice of the ADM company and in particular the Environment Protection Agency (EPA), under whose remit the overall responsibility for pollution in the harbour area and waters rests.

The fact that an inspector was not sent until 9am on Monday, July 4, shows the overall incompetence of that body. Did they expect the Crosshaven Fire Brigade to help ADM in the dilution of the pernicious spillage? Even very diluted caustic soda makes a most efficient paint stripper.

The distance from the ADM pier, where the spillage occurred, to the north shore of Monkstown Bay is approximately 500 metres the spillage occurred three hours before high water and even with the slack tides there was a strong probability that pockets of high alkaline caustic would have been up around the sand quay at Monkstown or dispersed along the shallows and beaches of Raffeen Creek within an hour.