There is a major question mark over the future of North Cork Creameries, which has been in business since 1928.

It is undersood that staff at North Cork Creameries have been informed by management there that their jobs at the plant in Kanturk, Co. Cork are at risk.

Why has this happened?

The plant has had to cease processing activity, after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suspended the dairy business' licence to discharge water from its wastewater treatment plant.

The EPA had issued a notice to North Cork Creameries on February 19 ordering the co-op to suspend effluent discharge.

That notice also set out the standard that co-op needs to achieve to allow the notice to be lifted.

As a result of this, Carbery Group began processing some of the milk supplied to North Cork Creameries.

What is North Cork Creameries?

North Cork Creameries was established in 1928.

The business and operations of the co-op have been headquartered in Kanturk, Co. Cork, since its foundation.

It is a farmer-owned co-op, processing an estimated "315 million equivalent whole milk litres a year".

According to the co-op, its milk is converted into a range of products for home and export markets.

These include casein powders, whey powders, skim milk powders, butter, and liquid milk and cream products.

What river is North Cork Creameries located near?

The River Allow flows into Kanturk, where North Cork Creameries is located.

The river is connected, via the River Dalua, to the River Blackwater.

Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) is the state agency responsible for the protection and conservation of freshwater fish and habitats.

According to IFI, the River Allow supports a population of freshwater pearl mussel, as well as being an abundant salmon and trout habitat.

In August and September 2025, the EPA participated in a multi-agency investigation into fish mortalities arising in the River Blackwater in August 2025.

The EPA said in a subsequent report that North Cork Creameries "attracted significant public attention throughout the course of the investigation".

"Non-compliances were detected in the North Cork Creameries wastewater discharge to the River Allow in the June to August period that were serious and entirely unacceptable," the EPA said.

"These issues were already the subject of significant ongoingenforcement activity by EPA.

"However, despite the seriousness and significance of licence breaches at North Cork Creameries, the EPA’s assessment does not support a causal link between the North Cork Creameries' discharges into the River Allow and the fish mortalities in the Blackwater."

Did the co-op have to suspend effluent charges last year?

In 2025, North Cork Creameries suspended wastewater treatment plant discharge from its site in Kanturk.

This followed a direction to do so from the EPA.

According to the EPA, "exceedances were detected in effluent discharges from North Cork Creameries" in November 2025.

The EPA said that North Cork Creameries "ceased discharging from emission point SW1" into the River Allow on the evening of November 11.

The co-op also "began undertaking corrective action" on the same date.

Subsequently the EPA carried out a site visit to North Cork Creameries on November 14 "to assess progress on the corrective actions".

However the EPA was "not satisfied that compliance was satisfactorily restored and deemed that the discharges should not be resumed".

According to the agency, it issued a notice to North Cork Creameries, "directing them to suspend discharges from SW1".

The notice directed the co-op to "without delay take the necessary measures to ensure that compliance with the conditions of the licence is restored in the shortest possible time and to the satisfaction of the agency".

North Cork Creameries submitted information to show that it had maintained compliance for a set period, and the EPA lifted the suspension on January 7.

The EPA had said that this suspension "only related to the effluent discharge and not to the licence or the wider activity on site".

Why has there been another suspension?

According to the EPA, over the six weeks since the notice was lifted, the co-op has "failed to maintain adequate control of the plant leading to ongoing non-compliances with emission limit values".

The EPA said that the dairy business has "not demonstrated the capacity to reliably maintain steady state compliance with licence requirements" in relation to effluent at the discharge point.

According to the EPA, there is "once more an ongoing and elevated risk" of discharges that do not comply with relevant regulations and the emission limit values at the discharge point.

These discharges "threaten to cause an immediate adverse effect on the environment, in particular the ecological and chemical water quality of the River Allow", the EPA said.

A notice was served on North Cork Creameries on February 19 to once again suspend the discharge from the wastewater treatment plant.

The EPA said the discharge will not be permitted to resume until the agency "receives demonstration and confirmation that the licensee can reliably maintain steady state compliance on an ongoing basis".

North Cork Creameries has a number of times been on the EPA's National Priority Sites list.

This list is used by the agency to target its enforcement effort "at the poorest performing sites in order to drive improvements in environmental compliance".

Has the co-op been prosecuted previously?

On February 22, 2024, North Cork Co-Operative Creameries Limited pleaded guilty to eight charges of breaching conditions of its Industrial Emissions Licence – P1051-01.  

The sentencing of the case took place on April 29, 2025, at Mallow District Court.

In September 2019, North Cork Creameries also pleaded guilty to polluting the Allow River.

North Cork Creameries Co-operative Ltd received the benefit of the Probation of Offenders Act following a guilty plea on two charges under fisheries and local government legislation at a sitting of Mallow District Court on September 17.

The charges followed an investigation by Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) in relation to a pollution incident, which occurred on the River Allow at Kanturk, Co. Cork during August 2018.

The IFI said that the court heard that the pollution resulted from a milk spillage during a tanker loading process at the company’s production facility in Kanturk, which then discharged to the river.

North Cork Creameries Co-operative had been successfully prosecuted by IFI in the Circuit Court in 2012 for similar offences.

It also received the benefit of the Probation Act in the District Court in 2018, following a prosecution by Cork County Council under the Local Government (Water Pollution) Act, the IFI outlined.