RESIDENTS LIVING IN the vicinity of a waste oil processing facility in Portlaoise have voiced their concerns in a report by RTÉ’s Prime Time tonight.
People living near the Enva plant have, for years, reported a strong oily smell in the air which leaves some feeling ill. At times they say it is unbearable.
“It could last all evening, I just feel sick. I don’t get sick but I feel sick,” Mary Murphy told the programme tonight.
One resident said:
I’m worried, we don’t know what’s in this but the smell is bad.
“One of the nights you literally couldn’t have stepped outside the door,” commented another, adding that at times he felt it would not be safe to let his children play outside.
Iarnród Éireann also lodged complaints with the company, reporting staff at an adjacent yard suffered headaches as a result of the emissions.
‘Farcical’
A 2011 independent inspectors report found Enva were in breach of their licence in relation to odours coming from the plant, but when the company disputed the findings, no action was taken by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Concerns about the plant and about what is actually being released into the air have previously been highlighted by Senator John Whelan. In May last year he described a new EPA report on the plant as “absolutely farcical”.
It had concluded that:
“It’s a complete whitewash, and will be seen as such in the fullness of time,” he told TheJournal.ie at the time.
To suggest that there are no problems with odours, for starters, at the plant is absolutely farcical.
Compliance
When questioned tonight about EPA tests and about potential danger for residents around the plant, Director of the Office of Environmental Enforcement Gerard O’Leary repeated numerous times that the plant “complies with EU and national guideline values for the protection of public health”.
However, he declined to comment on whether there was any change in air quality during the plant’s operating times.
For locals, the EPA’s response has not been adequate.
“You get nowhere with complaints, you do get tired of complaining,” Mary Murphy told Prime Time.
As part of the investigation, RTÉ reporter Mark Coughlan had called the EPA’s 24-hour phone line himself from Portlaoise to file a complaint about the odour. He never received a response and was told by O’Leary that no record of his phone call, which was recorded for the purpose of the programme, could be found.
In September last year, Enva’s Portlaoise plant was found to be in breach of its licence over several months in the latter half of 2015. The EPA prosecuted the company and in December it was issued with a fine of €8,000.
Though the company insists it complies with guidelines, it has accepted there is potential for odours to be generated in the processing of waste oils. It has applied to the EPA to install a system to capture chemical emissions in the air, but this will take at least six months to build and the EPA will have to approve it before it can go ahead.
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