Councillors ask why public were not told about Bank of Ireland oil spill earlier
Over a month after a diesel delivery to a Bank of Ireland data centre led to a “really heavy” oil spill at Kilbogget Park in south Dublin, wildlife is set to return to the area.
At an area committee meeting for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council (DLRCC), councillors questioned the response to the incident.
People Before Profit councillor Dave O’Keeffe asked why there was a delay in informing the public about the incident.
“It took two days before anything about the spill was put out publicly,” he said.
“Anything that was said was the opposite of what was being said by volunteers in the area. We need to make sure we’re communicating straight away with people who use the park every day.
“The park feels like a dead space. My son likes to see the swans every day, the level of wildlife isn’t what it used to be before. We’re not seeing the numbers we used to see.”
After the spill in July, Bank of Ireland donated €10,000 to Kildare Wildlife Rescue (KWR) to remove a family of swans from the area.
“This is a huge issue to our constituents, and all the information about it has been conflicting,” said Labour Party councillor Carrie Smith.
“With KWR set to bring back the swans, we need to know if proper testing has taken place. Is it safe again or is this premature? Is the park ready for wildlife again?”
Paul Buggy, Senior Executive Engineer in charge of water pollution for the Council’s Municipal Services Department, presented a report explaining that the spill was due to the oil being being filled into the wrong pipe.
“The data centre has a diesel pipe to fill its generator and another pipe it doesn’t use which used to help lubricate the generators. The 4,000 litres of diesel was filled into this wrong pipe,” he said.
“When the spill happened, the bank’s staff noticed pretty quickly. A technician found the diesel had gone in through a corroded pipe with holes in it.
“Eventually, we had heavy rains that allowed the oil to be washed out into the sea.”
He said environmental experts from the bank and DLRCC will work together to sample the soil around the data centre in Cabinteely to ensure the remaining oil will not resurface, according to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) protocol.
Independent Councillor Hugh Lewis added that the biodiversity in the wetlands has been “decimated” and questioned why it had not been addressed in the report.
“I’ve seen what the wetlands were, it was a wealth of biodiversity – we had loads of different insects, moorhens and swans,” he said.
“When I walked around it two weeks ago, the only life I could see was a single heron.
“How can we say we’re not worried about the biodiversity in Kilbogget park when it’s been decimated?”
Senior Engineer Gerry Concannon said a new system will be put in place to ensure the public is informed sooner of any such incidents in the future.
“We could have done better there. There was a small delay in informing the public, so we’re going to put a different system in place to make sure the message gets out earlier,” he said.