Waste expert: If this was a private firm, they would be in jail

THE Government must “do the right thing” and tackle the toxic waste scandal on Haulbowline Island once and for all, an environmental expert said yesterday.

Environmental consultant Stephen Griffin, who blew the whistle on the scale of the problem, said it would be “criminal” to leave the site as it is.

“The department should never have started the clean-up job without a plan to finish it,” he said.

“Can you imagine if you or I owned that site, we would be in Mountjoy. If this was run by a private waste company, they would be in prison now.”

He also dismissed assurances from Environment Minister John Gormley that everything possible is being done to minimise the risk.

“This is the largest ever pollution incident in the Republic of Ireland,” Mr Griffin said.

“People should be fearful for their health. It’s urgent for local communities and the environment and is extremely dangerous for naval staff at Haulbowline.

“Two school tours were allowed on the site when we were there. Is that not ridiculous?

“There isn’t a heavy metal I know of that isn’t there — zinc, lead, mercury, cadmium, chromium 6 — the periodic table is there.

“The site is surrounded by water and it is inter-tidal. The waste has no resilience to water. The site sits on one of the most important aquifers [underground layer that yields water] in the region.

“If the minister has a green agenda, and I believe he has, he should take the bull by the horns and do the right thing, and continue the clean-up” said Mr Griffin. He was speaking in Cork after the minister cancelled a meeting with him.

He was engaged as a sub-contractor in October 2007 to clean 15,000 tonnes of hazardous materials from the surface of the former Irish Steel site and leave a clean, level surface.

But Mr Griffin said there is no such thing as a clean, safe, level surface on the Haulbowline Island.

“No matter where we dug we couldn’t find a clean, safe, level surface,” he said.

“We had a contract to remove surface layers of hazardous material. But when we took it off, six inches in some places, up to three metres in others, we found surface layers of hazardous materials, and more below those again,” he said.

“There is no such thing as a clean, safe level site on Haulbowline Island. The whole island is made up of waste.

“Some is non-hazardous but we found it hard to find non-hazardous material.

“If the minister runs and hides, then the green agenda is gone.”