Cork County Council is to write to the Environmental Protection Agency to ask why it was so late arriving at the scene of a spillage of caustic soda in Cork harbour and why it did not inform the community of the spillage.
Councillors agreed at yesterday's meeting that the EPA's response to the spillage at the ADM plant in Ringaskiddy on July 2nd, when 252 tonnes of caustic soda leaked into the sea, was less than satisfactory.
Fine Gael councillor Tim Lombard said the EPA was told about the spillage at 6am on July 3rd by fax and no action was taken until Monday morning - 36 hours after the spillage when the caustic soda was being transferred from a ship to the plant.
"It took 36 hours for the EPA to test the water at the scene after six tides - it was a very serious incident and no action was taken until Monday morning," said Mr Lombard. "This is totally unacceptable." The public was informed by chance, he said, and he dreaded to think what would have happened if the spillage had occurred over a bank holiday weekend.
Cork county manager Maurice Moloney said the council was a notifiable authority but it wasn't involved in the actual situation as the plant was licensed by the EPA and the council only granted permits to low-grade facilities.
Mr Moloney said Cork County Council had no power to act in the case unless it was requested to do so by the EPA. Most pharmaceutical or chemical plants in the Ringaskiddy area came under the remit of the EPA, he added.
Fianna Fáil's Alan Coleman said EPA policy was that information should be given out where there was a public risk, but its policy should change to inform the public of all events to allay unwarranted fears.