EPA Prosecutes Kildare Chilling

The EPA successfully prosecuted Kildare Chilling Company Limited., a slaughtering factory located on the outskirts of Kildare Town, for breaches of its Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) Licence, at Kildare District Court on Monday, 26th April 2004.

The alleged offences related to odour nuisance, failure to comply with emissions limit values for discharges to sewer, failure to bund tank and drum storage areas, and failure to notify the EPA of a breakdown of monitoring equipment.

In pleading guilty to seven of the fourteen charges, the court fined the company €2,500 whilst awarding costs totalling € 7,000 to the EPA. The company contested the charge relating to odour, which the court found unproven.

This prosecution was taken in light of an increase in the number of odour complaints for this facility received by the EPA from local residents, the results of EPA sampling and analysis for emissions to sewer and the outcome of site investigations by both the EPA and Kildare County Council.

This is the second prosecution of this company by the EPA, the first of which was heard at Kildare District Court on 5 February 2001.