North Cork Creameries has temporarily halted milk intakes and processing at its plant in Kanturk following an order from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The EPA directed North Cork Creameries to suspend discharges from its wastewater treatment plant following an on-site inspection on Friday 14 November.

When contacted by the Irish Farmers Journal, North Cork Creameries confirmed that production at the Kanturk site had been stopped. However, the co-op said it hoped to resume processing over the coming week.

ADVERTISEMENT

Milk from North Cork suppliers is currently being processed by other dairies across Munster.

An EPA statement outlined that it had visited North Cork Creameries on Tuesday 11 November, when the co-op was ordered to halt discharges into the River Arrow and ordered to take corrective action on its effluent management operations.

“[The] EPA carried out a site visit on Friday 14 November to assess progress on the corrective actions.

"[The] EPA [was] not satisfied that compliance was satisfactorily restored and deemed that the discharges should not be resumed,” the EPA stated.

Notice

A notice to this effect was issued by the EPA.

“The notice directs the licensee to, without delay, take the necessary measures to ensure that compliance with the conditions of the [pollution control] licence is restored in the shortest possible time and to the satisfaction of the agency [EPA],” it added.

The EPA insisted that North Cork Creameries must be compliant with its pollution control licence “prior to any recommencement of the discharge”.

“NCC [North Cork Creameries] will not be permitted to resume discharging effluent until [the] EPA is satisfied that NCC has made changes to bring their activities into compliance with their licence,” the EPA insisted.

North Cork Creameries stressed in a statement to its suppliers that it is working to address its difficulties.

“The EPA is requiring us to make adjustments to our current wastewater treatment operations. We are actively working on this in full co-operation with the EPA,” the co-op stated.

Temporary

“We emphasise that this pause [in operations at Kanturk] is temporary, as we engage constructively with the EPA to restore full compliance as quickly as possible,” the co-op maintained.

“North Cork Creameries, along with solution providers, are already implementing the required technical and operational improvements to ensure our wastewater treatment systems will fully meet regulatory standards,” the co-op statement claimed.

North Cork Creameries processes around 280m litres of milk each year at its facility in Kanturk. Much of this milk is processed on a contract basis.

The co-op has close to 200 suppliers.

The dairy's product mix includes milk powders, caseins and bulk butter. It also produces liquid milk, whipping creams and butters for retail.