This article is from page 3 of the 2006-01-31 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 3 JPG
THE Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has imposed additional environmental controls on east Clare company, Finsa Forest Products.
They are contained in a new draft license to the company, which halves the permitted level of emissions into the atmosphere of the suspected carcinogen, formaldehyde.
The level of Sulphur Dioxide emissions from the timber plant has also been drastically reduced.
However, the EPA has acceded to a company request not to require a reduction of emission levels until January of next year.
The license also tightens the level of particulates or polluting material from processing Finsa products that is emitted to atmosphere. Numerous health studies have linked particulate pollution to reductions in lung function.
The review of the current license was requested by the company, as it was not able to meet EPA deadlines in reducing emissions due to the financial costs involved.
Last year, the EPA uncovered a series of environmental breaches at Finsa Forest Products, where 150 people are employed, as a result of two audits of the facility.
The most recent occurred last month where the EPA uncovered seven breaches of the company’s Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) licence.
The EPA found that five of the seven breaches relate to the same areas as detected in the EPA’s previous audit in the Autumn.
The EPA inspector’s report states that notification of non-compliances (NONCs) with its license were issued to the company in relation to audits undertaken in 1998, ’99, ’02, ’03, ‘04 and again in 2005.
“Finsa Forest Products Limited was convicted on 9 counts under the EPA Act 1992 in November 2003. Five counts relate to specified emissions of particulates to atmosphere.
“The company failed to keep full waste records, failed to notify the Agency of an exceedance in emission, failed to ensure that monitoring and analyses equipment was operating correctly and caused an emission to water which was not a specified emission. Excepting particulate emissions, corrective actions have been put in place for the other matters.”
“There continues to be a number of issues on-site . . . Seven odour complaints from four individuals have been received by the Agency since 2003.
“However, the poor compliance record as detailed above indicates a lack of technical knowledge to carry on the activity in accordance with their licence.
Finsa and third parties have until mid-February to object to any parts of the draft licence before the EPA issue a final license later this year.