AUGHINISH Alumina Limited yesterday rejected "any imputation, regardless of source" for responsibility for elevated levels of aluminium said to have been found following post mortems on eight horses from a firm in the Askeaton area.
The Sheehy family, of Toomdeely, Askeaton, handed a report to an oral hearing of the Environmental Protection Agency in Limerick last week, claiming that tests carried out by independent experts in Ireland and abroad showed that all the animals had lesions.
The family said the horses were found to have a rare chronic enteric disease which had never been found in a cluster anywhere in the world. It also said that elevated levels of aluminium were detected in the tissues of the eight horses.
The family now wants the EPA and the Department of Agriculture to hold an inquiry, claiming that since the beginning of the 1990s, it has lost 62 horses, 100 cattle and many sheep.
Aughinish Alumina, which has its plant in west Limerick, referred in a statement to the post mortems carried out by the Irish Equine Centre, Naas, Co Kildare, "and unspecified tests by unidentified overseas experts".
The company said the Sheehy family not only withdrew from the EPA-managed study of firms in the Askeaton area which started in 1995, but also refused to participate in the two-day public oral hearing into objections by them and others to the Aughinish Alumina draft integrated pollution control licence, held in Limerick last Thursday and Friday.
The company accused the Ballysteen/Askeaton Animal Health Committee and the Sheehy family of participating in an orchestrated and stage-managed walk-out at the start of the oral hearing on Thursday.
The company said it also had an obligation to defend itself "against gratuitous accusations which have no basis in either fact or science".
The company again referred to the EPA second interim report concerning atmospheric emissions taken since the first report. It said it was extremely encouraged that these more detailed measurements confirmed that the levels of sulphur dioxide in the air were well within the limits to protect human health.