You are here: Home > What we do > Enforcement > Prosecutions > 2005 Prosecutions

EPA Prosecutes E Smithwick & Sons Limited

The Agency successfully prosecuted E Smithwick & Sons Limited for breaches of its integrated pollution control (IPC) licence, Reg. No. 448, at Kilkenny District Court on 18 January 2005.

  • The company admitted breaching its licence conditions and indirectly causing the pollution of the River Nore by:
    • Exceeding the emission limits specified in the licence for discharges to sewer between January and June 2004.
  • The company also displayed environmental mismanagement by:
    • Failing to install monitoring equipment resulting in the company not taking samples as is required by the licence;
    • Failing to notify the EPA of an emission, which did not comply with the conditions of the licence.

Failure by the company to maintain compliance with the emission limits specified in the licence for discharges to sewer caused the Purcellsinch Sewage Treatment Plant, which is operated by Kilkenny County Council, to malfunction resulting in the discharges from the treatment plant to pollute the River Nore.

Following a complaint received from the Southern Regional Fisheries Board about discharges to the River Nore from the Purcellsinch Sewage Treatment Plant the Office of Environmental Enforcement initiated a series of site inspections and audits and introduced an extensive sampling program for effluent emissions from the brewery.

On hearing details of the offences, Judge Harnett imposed fines totalling €9,000 and awarded the EPA’s costs of €7,267.

E Smithwick & Sons Limited is located in the centre of Kilkenny at the site of the St Francis Abbey and was granted an IPC licence on 13 January 2000 for the commercial brewing and distilling, and malting where the production capacity exceeds 100,000 tonnes per year. The brewery is currently capable of producing 1.2 million hectolitres of beer per year.

This prosecution was taken following the outcome of the OEE’s site investigations with the co-operation of Kilkenny County Council and the Southern Regional Fisheries Board.