The Environmental Protection Agency has been strongly criticised for its failure to prosecute a tannery in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, following confirmation that it breached the terms of its licence.
The local River Action Group, which is campaigning against ongoing pollution of the River Suir, said the EPA had failed to take action on foot of a report - compiled by the EPA itself - showing that a landfill operated by the Ronan Group was polluting the river.
The EPA report, compiled last April by its Kilkenny-based regional chemist, Mr Michael Neill, found that "highly polluting" black liquid from a large pond at the landfill site in Bawnogue, Co Waterford, was flowing into a tributary of the Suir.
"The stream is grossly polluted downstream from the landfill \ this in turn has the capacity to cause serious pollution in the River Suir," Mr Neill said. He also found that the black liquid was "consistent with untreated tannery effluent".
Concluding that the Ronan Group was in breach of its Integrated Pollution Control licence, he said the operators "were aware that there was a serious problem with discharges from the Bawnogue landfill", but had not notified the EPA.
No one was available at the group's Dudley Mills tannery yesterday to answer queries about the matter.
It is understood, however, that the group has invested in a new treatment plant in an effort to deal with on-site discharges.
These discharges into the Suir from the tannery in Clonmel had been the subject of numerous complaints over the years.
Residents of the town also complained of a smell of sulphide, which they attributed to the tannery.
The EPA has commissioned an expert report on the sulphide problem and this is due to be delivered at the end of August. But there was nobody available yesterday to say whether a prosecution was pending in relation to the landfill site.
Mr Declan Clarke, a spokesman for the River Action Group, said it had sent a team of divers into the River Suir at night to collect samples from the tannery's discharge pipe, and had then commissioned two laboratories to analyse them.
"In every single test result, the samples exceeded the limits specified by the EPA," he said, adding that the levels of ammonia, chloride, chromium, sulphide and suspended solids were in "stark contrast" to the Ronan Group's periodic reports.
In an analysis last May, Mr Neill found that two samples contained coagulated solids which turned black in colour when they were homogenised in his laboratory.
There was also "a foul odour of sulphide from both samples", he said.
