Dairygold found in breach of licence conditions

Dairygold in Mitchelstown have responded to an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report, which found several problems at the site at Castlefarm and on the Clonmel Road. The visit was carried out on 1st August this year and published at the end of that month.

The EPA visit found a number of issues in breach of their licence, including instances where the company had discharged emissions at temperatures exceeding 25 degrees Celsius. While in August, Dairygold said that new capital works would address this, the EPA demanded action ‘without delay’. In a response from Dairygold at the end of September, the company said that the exceedances were caused by the period of hot weather and they had now developed a solution.

There were also issues with stormwater discharge from the plant on Clonmel Road and from Castelfarm on multiple dates; in May, when discharge should be no higher than 10mg/l, it was recorded as more than 10 times higher at 109 mg/l. Dairygold did not address this issue specifically in their response.

Prior to the visit in August, the EPA had been contacted by Waterford City & County Council saying that sludge, allegedly from Dairygold, was put on commonage lands and led to complaints about smell on 13th July this year. The EPA deemed that the location was not approved as a disposal site, and ‘ inadequate’ to protect both groundwater and surface water.

The following day, Waterford council staff witnessed that the waste sludge had been spread on lands; these lands were later discovered not to be approved by the EPA. It was also noted that it had been spread during heavy rainfall, and heavy rainfall was due the following day too; in fact, a yellow rainfall warning was in place. The EPA demanded of Dairygold that in future, that the recipient farmer of waste that is going off-site is aware of their obligations around storage, and with regards to a Nutrient Management Plan (NMP).

In response, Dairygold said that they would have a report on Dairygold’s NMP by October 6th as there was a 'considerable amount of work' involved. The EPA confirmed to The Avondhu that this report had been received, and would be publicly available at some point next week.

Other issues around site drainage were also critiqued and it was found that manholes were not labelled, and that pipelines to the Wastewater Treatment Plant were not accurately presented on the drainage map, as well as some other issues. Dairygold later submitted an updated Site Drainage Plan to the EPA, as well as evidence that they had begun labelling manhole covers.