EPA to examine pollution claims

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is to carry out an investigation into allegations that the River Nore in Kilkenny city is being polluted by waste coming from a sewage treatment plant.

Local residents have been complaining over deposits going into the river at Purcellsinch . An EPA spokesperson said that inspectors from the EPA’s office of environmental enforcement would carry out further investigations.
A spokesman for Kilkenny County Council said he was “confident” results would show that the effluent will be “within the EU standards for discharge to salmonid rivers”. The council maintain that while the odour is a “nuisance”, it is not endangering people’s health.

However, a local residents’ group decided to take samples to be tested. They filled glass containers showing muddied water with semi-solid material coming from a pipe into the river. Their spokesman, John Brett, said the smell of hydrogen sulphide can get so bad his family has had to leave home.
The council is blaming the problem on industrial waste. It is trying to identify unauthorised discharges of effluent including the unlawful disposal of the contents of private septic tanks.

Local anglers who abandoned fishing at sites on the weekend of Saturday, June 17th, close to the discharge said they thought fish would be killed soon because of the problem.