Irish Examiner - 17/08/05
EPA probes second chemical plant spill
By Eoin English

THE Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is investigating a second chemical spill at the giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) plant in the past week.

The revelations came as the EPA announced it would make public all incidents on its website.

The GSK plant in Currabinny, Co Cork, which last week admitted a waste management blunder that went unnoticed for eight months, was at the centre of another incident on Saturday night. Four hundred litres of a 25% caustic solution were spilled during loading operations at the plant at 11.30pm. The EPA was notified on Monday.

"No caustic solution was discharged to the estuary, as it was retained in the site retention pond, designed for that purpose," the EPA report said.

"The priority for the EPA is to ensure the necessary management practices are in place to eliminate the causes of this type of spillage."

The EPA released details of a second incident last weekend. The Gradoge River in Mitchelstown was polluted by a discharge near the Dairygold milk processing factory at Castlefarm.

The EPA said initial indications were that work carried out on land owned by Dairygold damaged drains which run into the river.

"Containment arrangements were put in place on Saturday," the report said.

The EPA launched its reporting system online yesterday following public outcry about a 255-tonne caustic soda leak into Cork Harbour last month.