Site next to toxic works is safe, insists Navy

WORKERS at a new storage facility for the Navy next to a former steelworks face no risk from toxic materials at the latter site, the service insisted yesterday.

The Ispat/Irish Steel plant on Haulbowline Island in Cork closed in controversial circumstances in 2001.

Last year a consultant’s report said it could cost up to €30 million to clean up the site and an 80,000-tonne slag heap containing toxic metals and materials.

Last week, the Irish Examiner received a letter sent anonymously by a Navy employee expressing concern about the location of newly built storage facilities in the Naval dockyard on the island. It claimed they were situated too close to the slag heap on the neighbouring Ispat site. Some 40 employees will work in the new storage facility.

However, a senior spokesman for the Navy dismissed the claim.

“The new facility is within an area that the Navy is currently using and has used through the time of operation of the (Irish Steel/Ispat) site. It has not been created on a green field site,” he said.

“It’s part of the existing naval dockyard. It does not mark any new departure.”

The spokesman insisted that the health and safety of its personnel was a priority for the service.

He added that the Naval Services have been working closely with various agencies to clean up the former Ispat site.

“Obviously, we are very keenly interested in what may emerge in terms of cleaning up this site,” the spokesman said.

Green Party TD Dan Boyle, who has been to the forefront of the campaign to clean the site, warned that further development of the Naval base in the vicinity of the Irish Steel/Ispat works should only take place once Irish Steel has been cleaned up.

“There’s an inconsistency in that you have one arm of the State developing on the island while another arm is trying to clean up the site,” he said.

Mr Boyle said it could take up to five years before the site is finally cleared of toxic material.

He has already stated his belief that the final cost of the operation will be well in excess of €30 million.

Fine Gael’s environment spokesman Bernard Allen said he accepted the reassurances given by the Navy and added that he did not view the new development as a problem.

“The distance between the sites is significant. I could not see myself raising alarm bells,” he said.

However, he went on to say that the Department of Defence and the Environmental Protection Agency should publish the results of air monitoring around the site in order to allay fears.