Two Donegal companies have been named in the EPA’s National Priority Sites 2024 enforcement list.
Aurivo Consumer Foods Limited have been included for discharges to water, and Glenmore Biogas for odour issues.
The report details the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) enforcement activities across industrial and waste sites that hold an EPA licence and highlights key compliance trends.
The two Donegal-based companies were among just ten of the 905 EPA-licensed sites identified as National Priority Sites in 2024.
Poor operational management and a lack of investment in infrastructure underpinned the main compliance failures at these priority sites.
Significant enforcement effort, however, has been directed at these sites accordingly, resulting in increased investment by the licensee and compliance improvements.
As a result, both Aurivo Consumer Foods and Glenmore Biogas have been removed from the National Priority List going into 2025.
The 2024 National Priority list was dominated by waste and food and drink facilities, with odour emissions and increased risks to rivers and groundwater being common compliance themes.
Commenting on the report, Dr Tom Ryan, Director of the EPA Office of Environmental Enforcement said:
“Recent convictions in the Courts of two sites on the EPA’s priority list, Killarney Waste Disposal Unlimited Company in 2024 and Aurivo Dairy Ingredients Ltd in 2025, attracted fines and penalties of €500,000 and €350,000 respectively. These convictions and the substantial fines imposed are an important endorsement of the ‘polluter pays’ principle in this jurisdiction. However, with the appropriate management commitment to environmental protection and to sufficient investment in infrastructure, particularly in the treatment of wastewater, all of these sites can comply with statutory requirements and be good neighbours to local communities. Companies that fail to respect their licence conditions, cause nuisance to neighbours and put the environment at risk will be held to account by EPA.”
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