Tipperary Co-op, Carbery Foods, Arrabawn Co-op and Nutricia Infant Nutrition which is owned by Danone, have been fined for water pollution this year.

In the same period Irish Water has also paid in the region of €80,000 for pollution offences.

Tipperary Co-op

Tipperary Co-operative Creamery limited pleaded guilty to exceeding emission limit values in August 2016 and for failing to ensure there were no emissions of environmental significance from 2 August 2016 to 15 November 2016. Judge McGrath imposed a fine of €1,500 on each charge and agency costs were awarded.

Arrabawn

The EPA prosecuted Arrabawn Co-operative Society Limited in March for breaches of its license, under six different charges.

These included exceeding emissions values set out in its license, failure to notify the EPA after an incident that caused environmental contamination of surface or ground water in July 2017 and failure to ensure tank and drum storage areas were bunded to the volume required. Judge McGrath issued fines totalling €10,500 at the hearing in Nenagh District Court.

Carbery

In April, Carbery Food Ingredients Ltd was convicted for breaching emissions set out in its license, failing to notify the EPA, Irish Water and Cork County Council after an incident in July 2017 relating to discharges to water. On hearing evidence, Judge Dorgan convicted the company of the above offences. She imposed a fine of €3,500 per charge, totalling €14,000 and awarded Agency costs.

Nutricia

Nutricia Infant Nutrition Ltd pleaded guilty to emission of odours from 3 February 2017 to 21 July 2017, failure to maintain a programme to ensure adequate control of processes and failure to clearly label and provide safe access to on site sampling and monitoring points. At the hearing in the courthouse in Macroom, Judge Olann Kelleher imposed a fine of €9,000 and awarded EPA costs of €13,304.46.

Irish Water

In May this year Irish Water was fined for pollution at three of its premises. The Irish Water Kilfenora Agglomeration pleaded guilty for failure to ceases discharges directly to groundwater in 2017.

Irish Water’s Castletownbere and Castletownshend Agglomerations were found guilty of failing to complete improvements set out in their Waste Water Discharge Licenses.

Aurivo and Lac Patrick fail to meet environmental standards - EPA

Four food processors on EPA priority list

Dairy processors fined €80,000 for water pollution

Irish dairy processing companies have paid out €78,451 in fines and prosecution costs to date this year, as a result of water pollution investigations carried out by the EPA.