An Taisce – the National Trust for Ireland – has written to the EPA to question the small number of licences held by Bord na Móna for its vast industrial peat operations.
Under Irish law, operators of certain large industrial processes with major polluting potential must obtain an IPC (Integrated Pollution Control) licence from the EPA. The operator must then monitor various factors, including dust, air and water emissions.
The EPA’s Guidance Notes for such licences state that the purpose of the system “is to make provision for the protection of the environment and the protection of human, animal and plant life from harm or nuisance.”
In its letter to the EPA, An Taisce questions how this can be achieved when 166 Bord na Móna bogs – some of which are many miles apart – have been crammed into a mere nine licences.
Further details are available here.
