RTÉ Investigates reveals serious environmental and safety hazards within the ESB Network spanning two decades, and hears from a whistleblower who has documented his concerns in protected disclosures.
The biggest concern highlighted by the whistleblower was outlined in his very first Protected Disclosure which documents the leaking of vast quantities of insulating oil from the national grid which continues to this day.
Whistleblower Séamus O’Loughlin: “I got the report on the fluid filled cables, I got the total leakage, up to a million litres in 20 year period. I just couldn’t compute it to be honest. I was astounded.”
The cables have been leaking thousands of litres of industrial fluid over a sustained period.
An internal ESB report from 2014, which is marked confidential, states that: “leaks could present a very high environmental impact, given the proximity to the Grand Canal.” The ESB report goes on to say that the underground cable oil is “not considered compatible with watercourses and the associated eco systems, in rivers and canals and the sea.”
ESB internal records, seen by RTÉ Investigates, reveal that a total of 19,781 litres of oil was leaked from one underground cable over a ten year period up until 2009.
Over the next five years up until 2014, a total of almost 10,000 litres of oil was leaked from the Grand Canal line. Over this period, Waterways Ireland received four reports of oil pollution from members of the public. The canal authority was unaware of the source of the pollution and had to pay for the clean-ups. It eventually learned the ESB cables had leaked oil.
The Environmental Protection Agency said the first time it was contacted by the ESB about these leaks was 10 days ago.
This was after RTÉ Investigates had informed the ESB and the EPA we were making a programme about the leaks.
A spokesperson for the EPA said:“Given the alleged scale and duration of these incidents as reported by RTÉ, and the correspondence received this week from ESB Networks, the EPA has launched an immediate investigation into the matter.“
The EPA added that local authorities are the agencies to which water pollution incidents must be reported. When RTÉ Investigates asked Dublin City Council about this a spokesperson said that apart from two incidents in 2009 and 2011, the City Council was not informed aboutleaks from the underground network.
The spokesperson said the City Council “would also expect to be notified of any instances of such leakage by ESB Networks.”
The whistleblower had a variety of safety concerns which he raised with the ESB.
Another example is a technical log showing of the leaks of SF6 gas from the ESB Moneypoint Power stationrevealing how the gas, which is the equivalent of 14,000 tonnes of CO2 was leaked in 2017.
On the 18th of January this year, the whistleblower formally lodged a number of protected disclosures with the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment. The disclosures, which have been seen by RTÉ Investigates, are still being examined by the Department.
Whistleblower Séamus O’Loughlin: “Staff were raising what I believed were legit safety concerns and they were saying, we are expected to use equipment which we believe isn’t safe and I couldn’t really argue with that.”
RTÉ Investigates – The ESB Leaks, Wednesday at 9.35.pm on RTÉ One