A Shannon-based pharmaceutical company yesterday appeared in court facing 21 separate summons in connection with an odour nuisance that has affected Shannon since last November.
After an eight-month investigation, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in July identified Schwarz Pharma Ltd as the source of the odour.
The smell abated in May and last July, director of the EPA, Dr Padraic Larkin signalled that Schwarz Pharma - formerly known as SIFA - would face prosecution for alleged breaches of the company's Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) licence.
Dr Larkin said at the time that the issue of the odour "is clearly a serious issue for the people of Shannon and one that the EPA has not taken lightly".
Yesterday at Shannon District Court, the EPA brought 21 separate summons against the German-owned company.
In 13 of the summons, the EPA allege that Schwarz Pharma failed to comply with the terms of their IPC licence by failing to ensure that all operations on-site resulting in atmospheric emissions were carried out in a manner which insured that no odour nuisance occurred beyond the site boundary.
The 13 summons relate to dates between December 30th, 2002 to May 20th, 2003. A further six summons relate to the EPA alleging that Schwarz Pharma failed to comply with the IPC licence, in that the company did cause or permit emissions to sewer in excess of the emission limit value set out in their licence.
These six summons relate to dates between October 30th in 2002 to April 1st this year.
Schwarz Pharma Ltd is also facing a summons that between February 1st and February 28th, it allegedly failed to comply with the IPC, in that it did cause or permit emissions to atmosphere which were in excess of the emissions limit values provided in article 5.1 of its IPC licence.
A 21st summons issued alleges that Schwarz Pharma on March 12th carried out an alteration to or a reconstruct to a part of the activity which would, or was likely to, result in a material change in the abatement treatment or recovery system without prior notice to and without the prior agreement of the EPA.
In court yesterday, a solicitor for Schwarz Pharma requested an adjournment in the case, stating that the company would be pleading to a number of the charges. He said that an inspector from the EPA would be required to give evidence and that the court would be addressed in relation to costs. The case was adjourned to a special sitting of Tulla District Court on November 27th next.Schwarz Pharma currently employs 250 at its Shannon base. However, last May it announced the loss of 70 jobs after identifying spare capacity in its pharmaceutical production operation in Germany. The job losses will not come about until 2005.
The Shannon facility currently contributes €30 million to the local economy annually and has been based at the Shannon Free Zone since 1976.
