A new on-line service in which it is possible to view the emissions records of factories, farms, waste water treatment plants and power generators among others, has been launched by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The new website utilises maps to allow searches by county or by industry, allowing researchers to compare the emissions of a number of plants in similar sectors, and access a report on the environmental compliance of each installation.
For example the website section “top emitters” shows the ESB’s Moneypoint power plant in Co Clare released by far the most carbon dioxide of any installation, in the years 2007, 2008 and 2009. However it also shows others in the top five were Aughinish Alumina, Irish Cement and a range of other power generators.
Included in the website are the details of more than 300, named industrial facilities which are tracked for up to 91 specific substances or pollutants emitted to air, water and land.
The website shows the State’s top emitting facility for methane in the years 2007 – 2009 was the Arthurstown landfill in Co Kildare. In the intensive agriculture section the top emitter of ammonia over those years was Silverhill Foods Co Monaghan.
Public wastewater treatment plants which receive wastewater from a variety of sources were as expected the top contributors to the total amount of nutrients, that is nitrogen and phosphorus, released to waters in 2009.
However the period 2007 to 2009 which is the latest data available shows a continued downward trend in emissions of key pollutants to air, such as carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, methane and non-methane volatile organic carbons.
Nitrogen oxide and sulphur dioxide emission decreased by 39 percent and 37 percent respectively, since 2008, the website shows.
The register also contains information on diffuse emissions to air and water from scattered sources such as road transport and agriculture.
Speaking at the launch of the register, Dara Lynott, acting director general of the EPA said providing access to data about the environment “contributes to peoples’ knowledge about the quality of their environment, and increases awareness about potential threats to the environment.
Mr Lynott said the EPA was committed to providing tools like the pollutant release and transfer register to make data as accessible as possible and to encourage public participation in environmental decision-making.
Further information on the website is available at http://prtr.epa.ie/
