Thousands of litres of a "lime slurry" containing lime, bauxite and caustic escaped from a tank at the Aughinish Alumina plant in Askeaton, Co Limerick, last week, causing the plant to shut for two hours.
Around 5,000 litres of the slurry escaped from the tank into a containment bund at around 6pm on March 15th. Some 600 to 900 litres of it poured outside the bund, landing on a grass area, according to a spokeswoman for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The agency was waiting on a full report from the company, expected to be complete by Monday.
An Aughinish Alumina statement said: "There were no accidents or injuries throughout the shutdown and restart. There was no spillage into the Shannon, nor was there any threat of a spillage at any stage during the event. Consequently, it was not necessary to inform the Shannon Regional Fisheries Board."
Pat Geoghegan, spokesman for the Cappagh Farmers Support Group, said: "Our group is very concerned that the EPA's enforcement unit is not watching this company and its breaches. We'd like to know if an EPA inspector was sent down to investigate this spillage and if so why not?"
The EPA spokeswoman said an inspector had not been sent to Aughinish as there had been no damage to the environment.