A spillage of some 255 tonnes of caustic soda at a Cork pharmachem company last month was the second significant spillage in the past two years at the plant, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has confirmed.
According to EPA inspector Michael Owens, caustic soda is one of four substances delivered to the ADM plant by ship. It also receives calcium chloride and sulphuric acid using similar pipeline systems, to transfer the cargo from ships into the plant.
Mr Owens said there was a previous incident at ADM involving the spillage of sulphuric acid from a storage tank during the offloading of a consignment from a ship on November 29th, 2003.
Cork Harbour Alliance for a Safe Environment said the news that the caustic soda spillage was the second spillage at the plant further highlighted the inadequacy of the EPA response to the spillage on July 2nd/3rd last.
Spokesperson Mary Hurley said that, given the earlier spillage, the EPA should have responded more promptly rather than wait 36 hours before dispatching an inspection team.
Ms Hurley pointed out that the EPA initially said that the decision not to dispatch an inspection team was taken by the EPA director of corporate enforcement, Dr Darragh Lynott, who took the phone call from ADM on Sunday morning, July 3rd.
But on Wednesday, the EPA issued a statement in which it clarified that the call had been reported by ADM to the EPA's non-urgent incident reporting line so that it wasn't picked up by the EPA until July 4th.
She said it was "terrifying to think that an incident of this nature would sit on a fax machine for over 24 hours".