At 9.10am on last August 12th, an angler made a call to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to report a large number of dead and ailing fish on the Blackwater river close to Mallow, Co Cork.
Almost simultaneously, Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) also contacted the agency to raise the alert.
The EPA dispatched inspectors to three sites on the river within the hour, kick-starting an investigation that would ultimately involve multiple government departments, public bodies and scientific, environmental and health agencies.
But it was too late. Around 42,000 fish were dead or dying. Already the trail that might have led to the cause had gone cold.
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The distress that the deaths of so many fish, mostly highly valued salmon and trout, caused among anglers, environmentalists and the wider community has turned to anger and frustration since.
It seems improbable that a multi-agency investigation with experienced personnel, good local knowledge and access to sophisticated laboratory services has been unable to pinpoint the cause of death.
Yet that is the conclusion of the final report on the incident published on Thursday evening.
“The pollutant or the source that caused the fish mortalities has not been identified,” it says.
Tom Ryan, EPA director of enforcement, said afterwards: “Nobody wants to see what happened here.
“This is a terrible, devastating event in a protected water and it is intolerable.
“If we could find the culprit for this, if it’s in our jurisdiction, we certainly would be holding them to account.”
The “culprit”, he believes, could be “something one-off, possible sinister or criminal in nature – or reckless”.
He was thinking of something dumped, washed out or allowed to spill into the river. It was fast-acting and, unfortunately for testers, equally fast to disappear.
The chances of identifying it were already slim when the investigation began.
Marine Institute analysis points to the fish encountering some sort of pollutant on August 5th or 6th – yet no testing of water, fish or potential industrial or wastewater pollution sources was organised before August 12th.
Dead fish were spotted on August 9th, but Inland Fisheries Ireland, the EPA, Uisce Éireann and Cork County Council say they were only notified between August 11th-12th.
There is no single point of contact for a member of the public to call so all relevant agencies can hear and respond.
“Can all these arrangements be improved? Can we learn from this? Of course,” Dr Ryan said. “But reaction is one thing, prevention is what’s key.”
Responsibility for pollution prevention resides in different jurisdictions, however.
The EPA licences large industries and wastewater facilities and polices the pollution they can legally undertake.
County councils permit smaller businesses and are responsible for farm inspections.
Water quality monitoring comes under multiple agencies. Enforcement of standards and regulations is convoluted.
Several licensed operators were non-compliant at the time of the fish kill, including repeat offender, North Cork Creameries, although their breaches were found not to have caused the incident.
Dr Elaine McGoff of the Sustainable Water Network said a shake-up in regulatory authorities was needed.
“There should at least be a 24-hour emergency hotline that gets inspectors on the ground immediately something happens,” she said. “Some big polluter is out there breathing a big sigh of relief.”
Bob Seward of the Angling Council of Ireland said the final report could not be last word on the issue.
“It’s not finished as far as we are concerned. There needs to be lessons learned. There needs to be an evaluation of the processes – for protection and response. This is fire brigade stuff.”
