EPA Warns 5 Industrial Sites To Improve Their Environmental Performance

The EPA has today launched a new enforcement initiative to drive further environmental compliance at industrial and waste facilities.  Licensed facilities with the poorest compliance status are identified as National Priority Sites for enforcement using a new system developed by the EPA.  Points are allocated to each site based on compliance data such as complaints, incidents and non-compliances over the previous six months.  Sites which exceed a certain threshold become a National Priority Site and are targeted by the EPA for further enforcement action.

Commenting on the National Priority Sites system, Mr. Gerard O’Leary, Director of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Enforcement, said:

“A small number of sites have significant compliance issues and we consider them to be National Priority Sites for enforcement.  The EPA will escalate enforcement action against companies, and their directors, if necessary, if compliance does not improve.”

The EPA Industrial and Waste Licence Enforcement Report 2016 also released today gives details of compliance levels and enforcement activities across the 800 licensed facilities in 2016.

Key findings are:

• €178,000 in fines and costs were paid from 11 prosecutions concluded in 2016
• Over 1500 site inspections were completed; 95% of which were unannounced
• Over 1000 complaints were received about licensed facilities; 66% related to odour nuisance
• The top 5 sites most visited were facilities in the Waste Sector
• The highest level of non-complaince were facilities in the Food & Drink sector

Ms. Mary Gurrie, Programme Manager, EPA’s Office of Environmental Enforcement commented:

“The report shows that the EPA targets its enforcement efforts at the most non-compliant facilties.  It is not acceptable for licensed sites to cause nuisance, or to cause an impact on the environment.  These operators face further enforcement action.”

The EPA is also reminding members of the public that they can now easily access enforcement information such as site visit and monitoring reports for licensed sites on the EPA website.

• Further details of the National Priority Sites scoring system and the list of sites can be found on the EPA website.
• The EPA Industrial and Waste Licence Enforcement Report 2016 is also now available.
• Enforcement information on all sites can be found under the Licence Search pages of the EPA website.
• Complaints about licensed sites can be made online or by contacting the EPA at 053-9160600.

National Priority Sites List

The following are the National Priority Sites at the end of June 2017.

The EPA will update the National Priority Sites list on a quarterly basis.