Calls for agency air-quality monitoring after incident

THERE were calls for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to closely monitor Shannon’s air quality at this week’s meeting of local area councillors.

Councillor Patricia McCarthy sought a report from the council’s chief fire officer and senior executive chemist on the Chemifloc incident of December 20 last. Her motion also called for the EPA to be asked to put in place “a public notification system in the event of any emergency at chemical plants in the area so that public health is protected and public concerns are allayed”.

Councillor Sean McLoughlin put forward a motion calling on the Minister for the Environment to instruct the EPA to monitor Shannon’s air on a permanent basis and to arrange a means of informing the public of incidents such as the one at Chemifloc, which saw eight people hospitalised.

In response to Councillor McCarthy’s motion, a report from chief fire officer Adrian Kelly and senior executive chemist Mary Burke was presented to the meeting.

It outlined some of the events of the evening and stated that further information is awaited from the EPA.

“As the Chemifloc site is licensed by the Environmental Protection Agency, under an Integrated Pollution ­Prevention and Control licence, Clare County Council awaits the outcome of monitoring and enforcement of environmental aspects of the recovery phase following the incident.

“This is in accordance with the Memorandum of Understanding between the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management on behalf of Local Authorities and the EPA.”

Councillor McCarthy said the incident had been a “cause of serious concern”. She said there was cause for concern over a number of issues, not least that Chemifloc hadn’t been put on a priority list of inspections for 2013.

The independent councillor said in their inspections, the EPA are very dependent on the information provided to them by companies. She also claimed licence terms are not strict enough and should have some involvement by local councils and members of the public.

Councillor Sean McLoughlin said Shannon was an example of a town with a large amount of chemical companies in a relatively small area.

He said worried people had been ringing him all evening after the Chemifloc incident and that there is still local concern about what people are breathing in.

Councillor Gerry Flynn said there are a number of local people who have respiratory problems and all people want of companies such as Chemifloc is that they be “good neighbours”.

The matter also came up for discussion at Tuesday night’s town council meeting, when it was raised by independent Councillor Cathy McCafferty.

She said there is a huge amount of worry. “There are too many incidents such as this and the people of Shannon are very concerned,” she commented.

Councillor McCafferty said that while jobs were valued, people’s health is far more important.

Councillor McLoughlin said it “may be time that Clare County Council had full-time safety officers in plants, with the plants paying for them” so important are the safety issues.

Councillor Patricia McCarthy said self-regulation and self-monitoring of plants is not effective, something that Councillor Greg Duff agreed with.

Fine Gael Councillor Vincent Coleman said there should be some sort of alarm system while Labour Councillor Tony McMahon said while it is important there be a full explanation provided, it’s more important that this type of incident doesn’t happen again.