Co-op is heavily fined for environmental breaches

The Aurivo dairy co-operative has been fined €350,000 for environmental breaches at a facility in Ballaghaderreen that led to a foul odour engulfing the town, forcing residents indoors.

Aurivo Dairy Ingredients (ADI), a subsidiary of its global agri-business, must pay €200,000 within six months and €150,000 in staggered payments of €15,000 over the next ten years, Judge Kenneth Connolly ruled at Sligo Circuit Criminal Court on Thursday last.

ADI had pleaded guilty last month to ten sample charges on the indictment at Roscommon Circuit Criminal Court. It had been initially charged with 64 counts of breaching its industrial emissions licence at its plant on the Dublin Road in Ballaghaderreen in 2022. The remaining 54 charges were taken into consideration.

The charges related to foul odours emanating from the plant that summer, discharge into the nearby River Lung and the failure to notify the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI).

Defence counsel Colm Smyth SC, instructed by solicitor Eamonn Gallagher, told the judge that there was “no expense spared” in rectifying the lack of a protocol for reporting environmental breaches within the co-op and pleaded that a “fail-safe” protocol was now in place.

Judge Connolly said he was “particularly horrified” by the fact that there was no formal reporting in place for the site while it enjoyed the benefit of the EPA licence, something he couldn’t understand. However, he said the “flipside was that that has now been rectified". 

“If nothing else good has come out of it, that itself is a monumental step forward,” he said.

The first incident happened on June 2, 2022, when an effluent discharge from the plant was in breach of its industrial emissions licence. Further charges included the ADI’s coolant water being discharged also in breach of its licence.

On dates in August and September 2022, ADI failed to comply with its licence which caused odours from the plant activity to impair or interfere with amenities or the environment beyond the boundary of its premises in Ballaghaderreen.

ADI was also guilty of failing to notify the EPA of the June incident and failing to notify Inland Fisheries Ireland of an incident on August 1, 2022, as soon as was practicable in breach of the conditions of its licence.

The final charge related to emissions from activities carried out at ADI which impaired or interfered with the water quality of the River Lung on August 26, 2022.

The court heard that testing revealed “serious impairment” of the river that day by way of water discolouration and a green fungus as a result of high levels of ammonia in the water.

Judge Connolly said that two months previously, in June, ADI had “ignored their own testing results” and allowed the situation to continue, with “devastating results”. This, he said, was “a deliberate and culpable act by the company” and a “breach of trust". He said the lack of a reporting protocol would “beg the question as to why bother carrying out the tests at all” and said he was “satisfied that this was a wilful act".

“It seems to me the company was happy to ignore the EPA guidelines. I’m entirely satisfied from the evidence of the EPA officer that matters deteriorated in June and were allowed to compound until they got to the stage they did,” he said.

The human effect of the breaches were “very significant and far-reaching”, Judge Connolly noted, with many complaints about the extreme malodours which included “vomiting, nausea, stress, anxiety, causing residents not to be able to leave their homes, open windows or invite guests around, and keep children indoors, causing them to be unable to use their gardens or barbecues” during that dry spell.

Judge Connolly said the River Lung was also affected in terms of the quality of the water and general amenity, but “fortunately there was no fish kill.

He said the foul odours had led to public meetings in Ballaghaderreen and expressed surprise at the “paltry figure” of €10,000 ADI had gifted to the local community and the “branded photo op at the Ballaghaderreen Co-op". 

Judge Connolly said he was fully assured that ADI was now “fully cognisant of all of the requirements of its licence and reporting protocols were now in place.” He said ADI was a “very impressive business” and the hot, dry weather conditions of summer 2022 had significant wind patterns that affected the operation of the plant, which was “struggling to cope with summer milk volumes". He said ADI ultimately co-operated fully and spent €500,000 on the removal of both dry and wet sludge off-site. The judge noted ADI had invested €4 million in the treatment of effluent, which was “a relatively significant sum” despite their large turnover.

In mitigation, the judge said ADI was a contributor to the community, a huge milk processor and a significant employer in the area, with 120 direct jobs and hundreds of secondary employees associated with the business.

The most important mitigation was the positive EPA report which had “no concerns” regarding ADI’s licence now. He was also “very heartened” by their “robust, mandatory” protocols in place for reporting to Inland Fisheries Ireland.

“My hope is that from this wake-up call we will not have a repeat of the summer of 2022,” he said, adding that the community of Ballaghaderreen would be relieved.

In deciding on penalties, Judge Connolly said the culpability of the offending was in the “upper end” of the seriousness of the offences.

For the foul odour counts, he fined ADI €100,000, €75,000 for the effluent discharge, €50,000 for the discharge of the coolant water, €100,000 for failing to notify the EPA, something he said “can be nothing but wilful or conscious”, adding that he could not see how there could be any mitigation for the failure to notify the EPA.

He also fined ADI €100,000 for failing to notify Inland Fisheries Ireland and €75,000 for the impairment of the River Lung, giving a total of €500,000.

The judge also noted, however, the €500,000 spent by the firm in removing sludge and their investment of €4m, which he said showed they had “got their house in order since". He ordered ADI to pay a €200,000 levy within six months. Of the remaining €300,000, he reduced it by half to €150,000 on condition ADI commit to investing €10,000 per annum into the Ballaghaderreen local community and €5,000 per annum to Inland Fisheries Ireland for the promotion of the amenity of the River Lung, both to be paid each year for the next ten years.

Counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions, Leo Mulrooney BL, instructed by Roscommon State Solicitor Kieran Madigan, asked that costs of €2,172 be awarded to the EPA, which the judge granted.

In a statement after the case, Aurivo said it "remains committed to maintaining the highest standards of environmental responsibility".

"Aurivo has invested over €4m in its waste-water treatment facility in Ballaghaderreen since 2020, with the phased works being completed in 2023 and it sincerely regrets the incidents that occurred in 2022.

"Aurivo takes the matter of compliance with its wastewater treatment plant licence conditions very seriously and has worked hard to ensure the site is fully compliant and operates to the highest standards."