Declassified files: Officials believed tycoon’s firm behind toxic water pollution.
Eddie Haughey, who would go on to become Lord Ballyedmond, engaged in a long-running and aggressive battle with officials over whether his business was responsible for toxic chemicals entering the sewage system.
The company’s use of water had increased massively, from 11,000 cubic metres in 1986 to 70,000 cubic metres in 1990 following a major expansion programme.
In a July 16 1991 letter to Mr Haughey, Department of the Environment permanent secretary J Murray asked to install an automatic sampler to test the firm’s discharges.
Mr Haughey phoned the department after the scientist, Mr Adamson, had been refused entry to claim that he had been “abusive to his staff”.
A departmental note said that the samples “provide evidence of a highly organic discharge to the sewer which was likely to be coming from Norbrook Laboratories although approximately 22 dwellings and a small car body repair shop are connected to the sewer upstream of the sample point in addition to the Norbrook factory”.
But Mr Haughey fought tooth and nail, threatening legal proceedings against the department, frequently writing to officials to dispute technical aspects of their request and then setting up a meeting with officials.
“Alternatively, Mr Haughey’s reticence in accepting that a consent is required or to permit sampling may have something to do with the fact that in samples taken outside the factory organic solvents have been identified.” He said that sampling on the site “could prove that prohibited substances are being discharged” which would either force Mr Haughey to pay an increased pollution charge or provide pre-treatment works at his own expense.
The documents are contained within volume one of the Norbrook File.
Volume two has not yet been declassified so the outcome is unclear.