Boyle River Chemical Spill

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Seanie
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Boyle River Chemical Spill

Post by Seanie » Sun May 15, 2011 9:10 pm

http://irishwhitewater.com/river_alerts/
Boyle River, Roscommon - Boyle River Contamination by Caroline Sligo Kayak Club - 15/05/2011

Boyle River in Co. Roscommon is hidiously polluted with some oily efluent from the feed factory in the town. The eddies are full of a gelatinous sludge. Do not paddle at all. Whatever it is melts neoprene, and the river is covered in it. Caroline Sligo Kayak Club
Are there any more updates on this? It sounds horrible.

Peter O'S
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Re: Boyle River Chemical Spill

Post by Peter O'S » Mon May 16, 2011 9:05 am

The EPA used to put up on there website when there were large spills into rivers. http://www.epa.ie/news/incidents/recent/ Not sure if they haven't the money to keep updating the page of haven't heard of this incident.

If the feed factory is responsible and licensed ( they are almost certainly licensed ) they are obliged to report spills to the EPA. I've found the EPA very helpful before send them a short email and a few photos and they will investigate.

Peter O'Sullivan

timskc1
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Re: Boyle River Chemical Spill

Post by timskc1 » Mon May 16, 2011 12:05 pm

i have called stewerts feeds this morning.
they had the spill reported to them yesterday evening. (the day we were paddling it) they claim they have filed their accident report and are investigating the leak at the moment. the leak is supposedly of palm oil. it is supposed to be safe for human health. probably not as safe for marine life. they have my number and will get back to me with more info regarding the clean-up process. i will give them three days before i call back.
my primary concern is the river being clean and safe to paddle in, so i will keep on this until it is. the Boyle river is a very good beginner whitewater river and a vital part of our training schedule in Sligo Kayak Club. any further advice on action we should be taking is appreciated.
one question. how can palm oil damage neoprene? the wrist protectors on my cag are the bare rubbery kinda neoprene, not the nylon covered kind. the neoprene went all soft and squidgy and flaked off like i had went at it with neoprene glue. the sole of my neoprene sock which is nylon finished, had the rubber liquidised in one spot and pushed through the nylon. apart from that, i was just covered in the fecking stuff. my gear has been washed, but i cannot shift the oil off it completely. pretty much every bit of paddling gear i have now is fucked.

tiernan
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Re: Boyle River Chemical Spill

Post by tiernan » Mon May 16, 2011 2:13 pm

ye palm oil, like many other plant extracted oils (and petrochemical oil), will mess up latex, neoprene, etc. And like most oils its immiscible in water so I doubt its all gonna wash away quickly.

Depending on how much it will probably take a long time before its all gone.

Unfortunately the only way to deal with oil spills is to stick down detergents to dissolve the oil, which is actually worse for the plants/animals in the area (in the short term anyway).

Why were they processing palm oil? I thought that was only done in poor countries no one cares about!

Tim, bring your gear to the plant and tell them to buy you new gear, see what they say. Failing that this might be one of the rare times i'd recommend sticking your gear in the washing machine with a little detergent to shift the oil. It might be too late for it though.

timskc1
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Re: Boyle River Chemical Spill

Post by timskc1 » Mon May 16, 2011 3:41 pm

tiernan wrote: Tim, bring your gear to the plant and tell them to buy you new gear, see what they say. Failing that this might be one of the rare times i'd recommend sticking your gear in the washing machine with a little detergent to shift the oil. It might be too late for it though.
Thanks Tiernan. I will definately be pursuing the costs of replacing my personal paddling gear that has been affected from the firm.
the mill produces animal feed. no idea why palm oil is used in animal feed.
on researching cleaning palm oil, i came across this link. http://www.itopf.com/marine-spills/about-veg/
informative i thought. i do hope they clean it up. it is my second favourite cartwheeling spot. i will definately keep on their case and update this forum when i have news. cheers.

Peter O'S
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Re: Boyle River Chemical Spill

Post by Peter O'S » Tue May 17, 2011 12:01 pm

Any chance someone at SKC could add a guide for the Boyle river.

How much oil is there? A few lumps in some eddies or a complete slick. Mechanical degreasers are available to get grease,oil and fat out of water without using chemicals but they use a fair bit of electricity. If its a complete slick there will be fish kills. Is it upstream or downstream of the towns water supply?

EoinH
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Re: Boyle River Chemical Spill

Post by EoinH » Tue May 17, 2011 9:21 pm

If people come across such spills please try to inform the EPA, local authorities and fisheries as soon as possible. Remember that chemical spills can seriously affect your health and you should stay off the water if in any doubt. Palm oil is definitely going to have a negative effect on the river ecology but I am not sure exactly what this effect is. Thanks for reporting this guys. Please let us know what action is being taken to clean up this or any other updates you have.

decgforce
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Re: Boyle River Chemical Spill

Post by decgforce » Thu May 19, 2011 9:00 pm

Oils are usually used as binding agents in animal feed so that might be what its for, very poorly handled by the company
though, incidents like that should be treated using a worst case scenario mentality. Did they inquire if you were exposed to it?

tiernan
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Re: Boyle River Chemical Spill

Post by tiernan » Fri May 20, 2011 2:13 pm

Still no word on the EPA website: http://www.epa.ie/news/incidents/recent/

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Seanie
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Re: Boyle River Chemical Spill

Post by Seanie » Tue May 31, 2011 6:55 am

Peter O'S wrote:Any chance someone at SKC could add a guide for the Boyle river.
Bump.

caz
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Re: Boyle River Chemical Spill

Post by caz » Tue May 31, 2011 12:56 pm

We have a few river guides on our website here http://www.sligokayakclub.com/river%20guide.html

The author says you can copy it to your own river guide if you wish, just make sure to credit Sligo Kayak Club as the author. Still no update from the feed factory must get in touch and see what the story is. In answer to Peter's question it was a big spill. The entire river below the factory was covered in a slick going right through the town. The eddies were copletely full of a yellowy sludge. We have some pics I might ask Timskc to put them up.

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Seanie
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Re: Boyle River Chemical Spill

Post by Seanie » Tue May 31, 2011 5:00 pm

Thanks Caz! I'll get around to adding those guides later in the week. The Sligo KC website is impressive and those guides are great. A big thank you to Sligo KC and the author(s) of those guides.

Here's the latest from the EPA:
EPA wrote:Dear Sean,

I am writing to you in relation to your email to the EPA received on 20/05/2011 in relation to an alleged spill on the Boyle River. On receipt of your email the Agency referred your query to the Environment Section of Roscommon County Council who is the responsible overseeing authority in the first instance to deal with this issue. The EPA requested that Roscommon County Council investigate the matter and report to the EPA on its findings.

Roscommon County Council has submitted a report to the EPA stating that a full inspection of Kiernan Milling, Mocmoyne, Boyle was conducted by the Environment Section and Inland Fisheries Ireland on 24 May 2011. It concluded that there was a spill of an animal feed blend oil from an overflow in a header tank into the river estimated at 300 litres. Roscommon County Council has initiated further enforcement action by issuing a warning letter to Kiernan Milling instructing the company to takes certain measures to ensure that a recurrence is avoided. These measures are to be addressed by the end of August 2011.

If you have any further queries on any of the above please contact the Environment Section of Roscommon County Council.

Yours sincerely,
Niamh O’ Neill Kennedy

Public Authority Enforcement
Environmental Protection Agency
John Moore Road
Castlebar
Co. Mayo

J.K.
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Re: Boyle River Chemical Spill

Post by J.K. » Wed Jun 01, 2011 1:13 pm

A strongly worded letter, eh? Good job, folks.

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