Engineers begin clean-up at Irish Steel factory

ENVIRONMENTAL engineers moved onto the site of the former Irish Steel factory on Haulbowline Island in Cobh, Co Cork, yesterday to begin the largest industrial clean-up in the history of the State.

Consultants working for Cork County Council removed over 80,000 tonnes of hazardous and radioactive materials from the site last year. However, thousands of tonnes of waste material still has to be removed.

More than 60 trial pits and bore holes will be sunk on the island site by staff from White Young Green consultants over the coming weeks to test the ground for contamination. Four holes will be drilled offshore to test the seabed to establish what levels of toxic material from the plant’s east tip head have leached into Cork harbour. Air quality monitoring stations have been set up on Haulbowline in Cobh and south of the Haulbowline bridge to monitor dust levels during testing.