Oireachtas body calls for sawmills inquiry

An Oireachtas committee is to ask Minister for the Environment Dick Roche to appoint an inspector to investigate an Offaly-based sawmills, after it was alleged that cattle had died from carcinogenic poisoning.

The Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Environment unanimously resolved to write to Mr Roche yesterday after it was told T & J Standish Ltd, which operated without planning permission until last October, had a number of convictions for breaches of its integrated pollution control licence.

The breaches included the release of wood preservatives into the Furawan river and local wells. Tests revealed the presence in the wells and river of chromium VI, an ingredient in wood preservatives with the potential to cause cancer.

Neighbouring farmer Tim Connolly told the committee that a number of his cattle died each year after he let them out in the spring. The deaths stopped when he fenced off the river and arranged an alternative water supply. He also arranged to buy in drinking water supplies for his family. He told the Oireachtas committee that he had been refused permission to dredge the river to improve drainage from his land, because of the likelihood of chemicals on the river bed.

Senator David Norris noted that, despite prosecuting the company for breaches of its licence, the Environmental Protection Agency went ahead and granted the company a new licence.