Minister of State for Fisheries and the Marine Timmy Dooley has cautioned against people speculating as to the cause of a pollution incident which killed thousands of fish on the Blackwater, as various agencies continue to work to try to identify the source.
Mr Dooley said he was well aware of the impact that the fish kill has had on anglers in north Cork from meeting them recently in Mallow, but he urged people to wait until the relevant agencies have gathered all the data necessary to identify the cause of the pollution.
“We are continuing to work with scientific and environmental experts across all our agencies to establish the cause of this devastating incident. Given the complexity and scale of this work, it is important that we are careful not to speculate on potential causes until we have all the data available to make evidence-informed assessments.”
Mr Dooley was speaking after chairing an inter-agency meeting involving Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Local Authorities Water Programme, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, the Health Service Executive, the Marine Institute and Uisce Éireann.
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“All agencies involved are engaging with the relevant stakeholders and will continue to provide updated data and information as it becomes available and I am updating Government colleagues as the investigation progresses,” he said.
At a press conference in Mallow on August 22nd chaired by Mr Dooley, IFI senior fisheries environmental officer Andrew Gillespie said it now looked as if the fish kill was due to some “environmental irritant”. The IFI later explained this meant a pollutant had caused the kill.
Mr Dooley’s call for patience comes as the EPA confirmed it did not believe there was any link between the fish kill and operations at Dairygold’s Lombardstown Mill which is located less than 500m south of the Blackwater.
The EPA told The Irish Times in a statement that Dairygold’s feed mill at Lombardstown was one of a number of EPA licensed sites that was asked to provide a list of any discharges to the Blackwater or any tributaries of the river.
“The licensee reported that there are no discharges of either process water or stormwater from the site: process water is collected in a tanker and conveyed to Mallow wastewater treatment plant weekly, while stormwater is collected for recovery by a licensed waste management firm.”
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The EPA said its inspectors visited the feed mill on August 28th and confirmed for themselves that process water is collected by tanker from the site while stormwater is collected for recovery by a licensed waste management firm.
“Therefore, this facility is not regarded by EPA as being a possible source of any polluting materials which may have contributed to the loss of fish life in the Blackwater and tributaries in August 2025,” said the EPA in its statement.
Dairygold said in a statement that it operated its feed mill at Lombardstown in accordance with an industrial emissions licence issued by the EPA and that there had been no discharge from the site, which also accommodates a Dairygold Superstore retail outlet.
“Wastewater generated on site is transported to authorised off-site wastewater treatment facilities, with approval from the EPA. The EPA visited the site last week as part of its investigation into the Blackwater fish kill incident and no concerns have been raised,” said the company.
