Premier Periclase - who polices the polluter?
Roisín de Rossa and James Quirke report on alarm about pollution from
a factory in Drogheda
There is environmental crisis brewing in Drogheda which does not
appear to have any quick solution. The crisis concerns Cement
Roadstone's plant above Drogheda, Premier Periclase, which local people fear is seriously polluting the atmosphere and
sea.
``Most mornings we wake up to a cloud of white dust that rolls over
the fields and local housing, leaving a dry white dust covering
everything,'' says Sheila Martin, Secretary of the
Drogheda Cleaner Air Group, an umbrella group of different
organisations all concerned about the factory's emissions.
Premier Periclase use a sintermagnesia process. They take magnesium
out of the sea water (from the Boyne alongside) and using lime which
it quarries five miles away at Mullaghcrone, produces a fine white
power, which is processed, with the addition of chromium oxide, at
very high temperatures of 2,300 degrees C into briquettes for use in
steel plants.
The plant, which has been operating since 1972, employs 160 people.
Sulphuric and nitrous oxides billow out of the smoke stacks, whilst
an amazingly large effluent of 190,000 cubic metres per day, very
highly alkaline (pH 11) is discharged into the sea, a mile out from
shore. Local divers have said the mouth of the pipe is regularly
clogged with dead sea life.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considered Premier's
application for a licence to continue, and subject to 13 conditions,
granted it just before Christmas.
Many local residents, and groups, including the Drogheda Clean Air
Group, objected to the licence at the start of January. The EPA
conditions were not sufficient, they said.
However, subsequently the Company itself brazenly objected to the
conditions imposed by the EPA, which they say will cost in the region
of £5 to £6 million, which they cannot afford.
Cement Roadstone Holdings, which owns Premier Periclase, had a great
year last year. They made pre-tax profits of £253m. CRH is of course
a multimillion pound company, which has enjoyed 80% of the Irish
cement market in these great times for building materials.
In fact it's not the first time Premier Periclase has voiced
objections. Cionnaith O'Heiligh, who is one of the main voices in the
Drogheda Clean Air Group, and a Sinn Fein candidate, explains how
three years ago the company had objected to the siting of 121 new
houses near their factory, on grounds of health risk. ``Yet now, with
Our Ladies College with 900 students just down the road, and the
Grammar School just across the river, Premier is refusing to comply
with the minimal conditions the EPA has imposed. It's unbelievable.
What are the costs to our children's good health?'' Cionnaith asks.
Maeve Healey, who is assistant chairperson of the group, and a long
time campaigner, points out that Drogheda already has registered the
highest death rate in the country from respiratory
illnesses. ``The company tell us that chromium oxide is used in very
small amounts and fully bound into the final product. But the company
uses 258 tonnes of Chromium 3 Hydroxide every year, which is a
substantial amount. Chromium Oxide is carcinogenic and causes
respiratory disease. How do we know that its use in the factory has
not contributed to the high cancer rates in Drogheda?'' asks Maeve.
The trouble is they don't know, and its costs a great deal of money
to find out. The Drogheda Clean Air Group have sought advice from a
marine biologist and a chemist and other specialists, but as Sheila
Martin points out, how can we evaluate their results.
There were many objections to giving Premier a licence. The EPA lists
them: fallout is affecting woodland, everything is smothered in smoke
containing grit and dust, paint on cars is damaged, obnoxious and
choking smells, white dust settles everywhere , the squirrels and
birds in Beaulieu Wood are gone, there are dead fish at the end of
the effluent sea pipe, and the mussel stocks in the Boyne Estuary may
be affected. The EPA noted them, but did not say what was to be done
about them.
``The real problem,'' says Sheila Martin, ``is with the EPA.'' The EPA
had to adjudicate on Premier's objections to complying with the
conditions the EPA laid down.
The standard practice of a company unwilling to spend money to clean
up their process is to appeal to what is known as BATNEEC (Best
Available Technology Not Entailing Excessive Cost). In practice this means ``everybody else does it, so why
shouldn't we?''
Drogheda's sintermagnesia process is only used elsewhere in India and
Australia. The EPA report points out that these plants don't have any
other abatement technology to remove the nitrous oxides, so they
conclude that present pollution control methods are BATNEEC for
Drogheda, and therefore acceptable. In the absence of controlling
legislation what is good enough for them is good enough for us.
Ireland at the moment is being prosecuted by the European Commission
over its failure to implement laws aimed at reducing air pollution.
Following a complaint from
Earthwatch, the EU claims that Irish law does not comply with a 1966
directive on monitoring air quality and imposing proper standards.
The Department of Environment replies that they
``are nearly finished drafting them''. Meanwhile there is no
independent standard which the EPA must impose.
``But,'' says Sheila, ``the problem doesn't end there. What really
worries us is who is going to police Premier implementing the
conditions which the EPA does finally imposes?'' Part of the
EPA licence conditions are that Premier should monitor their
emissions themselves, and pay for it. ``What good is that?'' asks
Sheila. ``Why, it's like Jesse James policing the banks.''
d worse - there isn't even a law to guide Jesse James in his police
work.
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