Haulbowline residents take water samples for testing
Several samples of sea water were taken from Cork Harbour on Saturday close to the polluted East Tip area after the dump site at the edge of the former steel works plant was breached and flooded by storm waters.
The interior of the polluted site was completely exposed to the harbour.
The samples will be sent for chemical analysis today to establish what materials leached into the harbour.
It could be several days before the results are known.
Local resident Linda Fitzpatrick, who is also a member of the Cork Harbour Alliance for a Safe Environment, organised the sample collections.
“I was spurred into action when I woke up on Saturday and read the Irish Examiner about the flooding on the site,” she said.
“My daughter was supposed to be sailing on the Curlane Bank on Saturday and we just didn’t know whether it was a good idea or not to let her out on the water. There was nobody I could ask or ring.”
Ms Fitzpatrick said it was evident upon close inspection of the East Tip site that the tidal waters had eroded the walls and washed into the site.
“There is no question that material has washed into the harbour,” she said.
Cobh-based Labour councillor John Mulvihill, who has lived in the town facing the dump site for 50 years, said he has never seen anything like the flooding of the site that occurred on Friday night.
“The site was completely open to the elements over the weekend. Yet the powers that be tell us it is OK. Do they take us for fools?” he said.
His son, John Jnr, is the mayor of Cobh. He contacted the Environmental Protection Agency about the situation at the weekend. They passed his concerns on to consultants White Young Green, who have been asked by Environment Minister John Gormley to reassess the site.
“One of their consultants rang him back from Ennis and assured him that there was nothing to be alarmed about. But there was nobody observing the site,” Mr Mulvihill said.
“Somebody must answer people’s questions. They can’t just pass the buck on to consultants.”
He said expecting people to wait until the Autumn for Mr Gormley to present White Young Green’s findings is not acceptable.
“If the minister thinks this is acceptable, I’m afraid he’s living in cloud cuckoo land,” he said.
Mr Mulvihill also said that people living in Cobh and who worked in the former steel plant know what was buried, and where, on the site.
“I would appeal to them to come out now and tell the people what was dumped and where,” he said.
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