Galway County Council and Udarás na Gaeltachta have been criticised for their response to a pollution incident involving thousands of gallons of fuel oil in an inlet in Connemara.
Local authority officials and a private contractor were still assessing the damage yesterday, but it is believed that at least 2,000 gallons - and perhaps up to 4,000 gallons - of heating oil ran into an inlet in north Casla Bay.
The "seepage" is suspected to have occurred since mid-January, and was only detected and reported to Galway County Council late last week. The diesel content of the fuel appears to have evaporated, but heavy oil has marked a half mile of shoreline up to the high-tide mark, and a clean up is expected to take three to four weeks.
The mixture of diesel and heavy oil emanated from a tank at an aeroboard factory on the Udarás na Gaeltachta industrial estate in Casla. A spokesman for Udarás said the factory had notified the council as soon as it became aware of the incident. However, the spokesman confirmed the factory had reported that oil was missing from the tank in mid-January.
A coast guard helicopter surveyed the scene at the weekend, but the pollution appeared to be confined to an inlet in the north end of the bay. Mr Terry Gallagher, manager of the Costello and Fermoyle fishery, said there was no immediate danger to the inland waterway.
Mr Jim Larkin, a PD member and community activist in Rossaveal, criticised Udarás for its delay in detecting the pollution and called for an inquiry.
Galway County Council was unavailable for comment yesterday.
