The Environmental Protection Agency carried out 1,434 inspections at industrial and waste facilities last year, to check on adherence to environmental standards and regulations around issues such as wastewater management, landfill management, odour management and noise pollution.
This represented an 11% increase in inspections compared to 2021.
A substantial majority, 87%, of the EPA inspections were unannounced.
Last year's inspections related to 602 individual industrial and waste sites around the country, including 58 unauthorised sites.
The most common issues identified were non-compliance with emission limit values, poor operation of wastewater treatment plants, and the handling and storage of waste at waste processing sites.
This information is contained in the 2022 Industrial and Waste Licence Enforcement Report which is an annual summary about the inspection and enforcement activities of the EPA.
According to the report, the EPA received a total of 1,357 complaints from the public last year, predominantly about noise and odour coming from a total of 106 such sites.
This represented a 9% reduction in complaints from the public compared with 2021.
However, the report says that ten sites alone accounted for three quarters of all the complaints the EPA received from the public.
In terms of prosecutions, the report also says a total of 12 legal actions taken by the EPA were heard in the District, Circuit, and High Courts during 2022.
These resulted in fines totalling €14,650, as well as €111,103 in legal costs awarded to the EPA.
Throughout the course of the year the EPA continued to take action to stop the unauthorised industrial extraction of peat and says it will continue to hold those operators to account.
Thirteen sites were identified as National Priority Sites for targeted enforcement action to drive further environmental compliance in 2022.
They were:
- Arrow Group Ltd - a food and drink company in county Kildare where the issue is odour and noise.
- Aurivo Dairy Ingredients Ltd in County Roscommon where the problems relate to discharges to water, and odour.
- Ballyguyroe Waste Landfill facility in Cork where the concern relates to landfill management.
- City Bin Company Ltd in Galway where the concerns relate to waste management.
- Euroflex Teoranta, a packaging company located in County Donegal where surface coating procedures have caused problems related to the emissions of pollutants into the air.
- Forge Hill Recycling Ltd in Cork where the management of waste is the issue.
- Gairdini, trading as Munster Joinery in Cork, where discharges into water associated with "surface coating" processes is the concern.
- Kepak Athleague the meat processing company in County Roscommon where discharges to water are the big concern.
- North Cork Co-Op Creameries Ltd where, again, the key issue relates to discharges to water.
- SRCL, a healthcare and clinical waste disposal company in Dublin, where the concern relates to the management of waste.
- Staunton Foods Ltd, a pork and bacon company in West Cork where complaints about noise is the key issue.
- Timoleague Agri Gen Ltd in West Cork. which makes biogas and electricity from anaerobic digestion using waste food and manure. The issue here relates to odour and to the facility infrastructure.
- Western Brand Group Ltd in Ballyhaunis county Mayo, the largest family-owned chicken producer in Ireland, where the main concerns relate to discharges of pollutants to water.
Dr Tom Ryan, Director of the EPA's Office of Environmental Enforcement, said it is disappointing that the food and drink sector continues to make up a significant proportion of the EPA’s National Priority Sites for environmental enforcement.
He said a small number of sites are threatening the green sustainable image that sector endeavours to project and that it is the aim of the EPA to ensure that all sites, across all sectors, resolve their environmental issues, return to compliance, and operate without giving cause for complaints from their neighbours.
