The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has expressed concern following the discovery of lethal chromium VI pollution in a river, groundwater and wells in Co Offaly.
The EPA has attributed the source of the chromium VI - a known carcinogenic used in industry and made infamous by the film Erin Brockovich - to a local sawmill.
Standish Sawmills, in the Aghancon Valley, about six miles from Roscrea, Co Tipperary, has been the subject of numerous EPA investigations relating to breaches of its Integrated Pollution Control licence, going back to 1998.
A director of the company, Mr Tom Standish, yesterday said the pollution had now ceased, and he attributed on-going EPA concern to a "vendetta" on the part of named locals.
According to EPA documents, seen by The Irish Times, the breaches included the release of a number of chemicals - including quantities of chromium VI and copper in excess of permitted limits - to surrounding surface water, the nearby Fuarawn river, and the contamination of a number of local wells.
A testing report noted that both chromium VI and copper were constituents of timber preservative used on the site.
Standish Sawmills produces fencing products.
The EPA served a notice against the sawmill, which trades as T&J Standish (Roscrea) Ltd., in October 2001, complaining, amongst other things, that annual environmental reports for 1999, 2000 and 2001 had not been completed.
A note on the inspector's file says that when asked about the pollution, Mr Standish "said perhaps it was from the stockpile yard".
The agency secured a District Court conviction against the company in October 2000 for the company's failure to comply with a Section 12 enforcement notice.
A further notice of non-compliance was served in January 2002, after the EPA found "treated product was still dripping treatment liquor when removed to stockpiles".
The agency also noted that a "new staking plant had been constructed without notification to the agency".
This new plant and other aspects of the operation also raised the ire of local residents, who pointed out to Offaly County Council that the sawmill was operating without planning permission.
The residents also complained that a historic wall, part of the original Leap Castle fortification on the site, had some years earlier been knocked down.
They were further angered when Mr Tom Parlon was photographed in the new staking facility, holding one of the new "pencil stakes", alongside Mr Standish, in June of this year, just days before taking office as Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works.
Mr Standish acknowledged yesterday that he had been prosecuted for damage to the wall but insisted that a £100 fine represented a victory over "those who wanted thousands".
The Irish Times yesterday faxed Mr Parlon - whose family farm is near the sawmills - a number of questions in relation to his knowledge of the damage to the historic monument, the pollution and the absence of planning permission.
In a faxed reply, he did not address the issue of the wall.
He said the Standish family had successfully operated a sawmill "in the rural community of Leap, Roscrea, Offaly, for some time", being a "very significant employer" which had "invested heavily in their enterprise over the past few years and now run a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week operation".
The statement continued that the Minister supported such rural industries and had supported the Standishs' application for retentive planning permission, which Offaly County Council indicated it would approve last December. The decision is currently under appeal to Bord Pleanála.
The Minister also said he had been advised that on foot of the council's decision, "the objections lodged by the Aghancon Concerned Residents' Association have been withdrawn".
The statement concluded: "The Minister is not concerned about his lands being polluted by the activities being carried out at the Standish sawmills."
Last night a spokesman for the Aghancon Concerned Residents' Association said "the suggestion that we have withdrawn is garbage".
