Industrial Discharge Incident 7th June 2017

On the 7^th June, 2017 there was an Industrial discard incident in to the river Blackwater at the Kells Business Park. There was a blue discharge coming from the surface water run off at one of the industrial units. This was discovered by two members of the committee and reported directly on the evening to both Meath Co. Council and Inland Fisheries.

On reporting the incident, and after much persuasion, a representative of Meath Co. Council attended the incident. On seeing the discharge, the representative said they would look into the issue and report back to the club.

After many phone calls both by the committee members and other interested parties. The following response was received.

“Yes there was a discharge of ink arising from a spillage at a Courier Business premises in Kells Business Park on the 7th June

Ink was washed into a vehicle wash bay sump at the rear of the premises, this wash bay was connected to surface water drains, thus the discharge of ink entered the R. Blackwater, causing a blue plume in the river.

The plume was reported to Inland Fisheries Ireland whose officers  attended on-site on the night as did Emmett Conboy the Councils Executive Chemist

Water Services were alerted of the discharge to R. Blackwater and the drinking water abstraction at Liscartan was suspended from night of 07/06/2017 to following morning, when inspections confirmed input to waters had ceased and pollution impact had passed.

We are satisfied that it was an accidental spillage rather than a deliberate discharge however we are still looking at possible actions against the Company involved in respect the incident.

I hope this clarifies the situation.”

Although this at least acknowledged the incident, we feel as a club more should have been done to ascertain if there were any long-term effects to the river. We would encourage you as club members to make your local representative aware of the issue and the lack luster interest shown by the county council and Inland Fisheries.

The spillage had fully dispersed by the next day when the committee members who found the issue returned to see if there were any long-term effects. It appears that the spillage was water soluble and had most likely would have no long term effects.

The committee were very disappointed that the county council neither acknowledged the notification of the spillage by Kells Anglers or the work that the club do to maintain the river as a resource for the town of Kells and the greater Meath area.