EPA turns nose up at council’s offer

THE Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has declined an offer from Shannon Town Council to send a representative to a meeting.
Shannon Town Council previously wrote to the agency and the EPA’s response was presented at the February meeting.
“The agency acknowledges the concerns that have been expressed by the elected members of Shannon Town Council in relation to the odour issues, which affected the Smithstown area of Shannon in September and October of last year. The agency notes that you refer to our previous letter of October 28, 2011 in which we set out the position in respect of our investigation of these odour issues. In that letter, we confirmed that odour complaints had been received concerning two EPA licensed facilities, that the details of these complaints had been passed to the operators for their investigation and that the odours had been investigated by EPA personnel and by independent specialists on a number of occasions.
“As a result of these measures, the main cause of the significant odour issue in September-October 2011 was identified and the appropriate corrective actions have been put in place by the facility concerned to prevent recurrence of that problem. The agency notes there have been no further complaints of any odour problems associated with either of the EPA licensed facilities since early October 2011. However, as we indicated in our letter of October 28, it is apparent that odours in the Shannon Town area do unfortunately occur on occasion and are from multiple sources. The agency will continue to liase with and assist Clare County Council in their investigations and to work with its licensees in Shannon to ensure they are not the cause of the offsite nuisance odours.”
The letter also stated it had provided all information required and that there was no need to send a representative. “The agency considers that all relevant information has been provided to your office and is therefore available to the members of Shannon Town Council. As such, the agency considers that the provision of a representative to discuss the matter further would not be appropriate in this circumstance and we respectfully decline your invitation in this regard.”