A poultry company in Roscommon town may have its licence revoked by Roscommon County Council as a result of a new initiative on water pollution.
This follows last week's publication of a survey of water pollution in the upper Shannon area produced as part of the Lough Derg and Lough Ree management system.
The system was developed over four years and was the first catchment-based approach to water management. Others have been established for the Suir, the Nore, the Barrow and the Liffey.
The project was sponsored by the Department of the Environment and Local Government and co-financed by the European Union Cohesion Fund. It was administered jointly by Clare and Roscommon County Councils and implemented by the 10 local authorities within the catchment area.
The catchment-based system involved monitoring every river and stream flowing into Lough Ree and the Shannon, according to Mr Vincent Brennan, Roscommon county engineer. By the end of December more than 23,000 samples had been analysed in a dedicated laboratory in Roscommon town.
Employing five professional staff, the laboratory was set up as part of the monitoring system. It examined discharges from agriculture and industry into the upper Shannon water system. It found improvements in relation to farmers complying with the water pollution bylaws, although it recommended continuing compliance monitoring, with 10 per cent of farms inspected each year.
However, referring to industry, the report said: "It is clear that the local authority-licensed industries are not being properly regulated. This is a serious problem which cannot be allowed to continue."
It pointed out that a comparison between the current consent conditions and monitoring results showed that the industries which were discharging unsatisfactory effluent were causing problems at the downstream waste-water treatment plants. This led to the discharge of only partially treated effluent into the Shannon water system.
The report said the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had confirmed that four industries licensed for discharging effluent caused an adverse effect on water quality. All four were associated with meat production. These were AIBP in Longford, C and D Foods in Edgeworthstown and Dawn Dairies and Hannons Poultry Exporters in Roscommon.
Hannons was in court recently charged with breaches of the water pollution legislation and was ordered to pay a total of £14,000 in fines and expenses.
According to Mr Brennan, the Hind river, which flows close by Roscommon and into Lough Ree, is the most seriously polluted river in the Lough Ree and Lough Derg area, despite a new waste-water treatment plant in the town. Almost half the river was seriously polluted in 1999.
"We made provision for the factory in our capacity, if they complied [with the terms of their licence]," said Mr Brennan. "But they are using up all our spare capacity and adding to the pollution. We have to get that capacity back some way.
"Either they install a treatment plant in accordance with their licence or we disconnect them from the system, and they'll have nowhere to go." Mr Brennan said the company would be given a fixed period of between three and six months to comply with the terms of its licence.
When contacted by The Irish Times, a spokeswoman for the company said: "No comment is available on anything".
The company employs about 40 people in Roscommon, which has a population of between 4,000 and 5,000. According to Mr Brennan, the council wants to encourage other companies to come into the town, but at the moment all the water-treatment capacity is being used up.
Water-based leisure activities are the tourism lifeline of the town and surrounding area. The council is determined that no industry will be allowed to pollute the waterways.