Shannon firm to face odour charges

A Shannon-based pharmaceutical firm is to face prosecution by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) arising from an odour that has afflicted Shannon town since last November.

After an eight-month investigation, the EPA yesterday identified the German-owned Schwarz Pharma Ltd as the source of the odour that was first detected in the Clare and Limerick region last November.

During that time, the smell has provoked hundreds of complaints from Shannon businesses and residents to Clare County Council.

Director of the EPA, Dr Padraic Larkin, confirmed yesterday that a summons has been served on Schwarz Pharma - formerly known as SIFA - for alleged breaches of the company's Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) licence and that the case is to be heard at Shannon District Court on the 11th of September next.

Dr Larkin said: "Complaints of odour nuisance were received from people living in the Shannon area for a number of months. Although the nuisance appears to have abated since May, this is clearly a serious issue for the people of Shannon and one that the EPA has not taken lightly."

During the course of its investigation, the EPA employed a Dutch-based odour consultant to help identify the source of the musty, dank odour.

In his report, released yesterday by the EPA, consultant Frans Vossen confirmed the waste water treatment plant at Schwarz Pharma as the origin of the musty odour.

Mr Vossen said, however, that the identification of Schwarz Pharma as the origin of the odour was not straightforward, pointing out that the smell was most obvious at a relatively large distance from the source.

He said: "It is therefore not obvious to recognise the relationship between the source and the odour."

In a separate report carried out by an EPA audit team into the odour, it claims that it arose as a result of failure by the Schwarz Pharma to establish proper operating criteria for the plant's Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP).

The report states: "This resulted in the plant being operated at levels beyond that for which it was designed for and ultimately leading to a failure of the plant and the resultant musty odour in the widespread Shannon area."

The EPA audit report noted that Schwarz Pharma "were of the opinion that they were not responsible or the wider odour described as the 'musty' odour observed in the wider Shannon area".

Local member of Clare County Council, Tony Mulcahy (FG), said yesterday that Schwarz Pharma must now deal responsibly with the issue.

"People in the Shannon area have been extremely distressed by the smell and it has not been helped by Schwarz Pharma operating a policy of denial on the issue."