Top official calls for toxic dump committee

CORK county manager Martin Riordan has asserted an expert committee should be set up by the Office of Public Works as soon as possible to deal with Ireland’s largest toxic waste dump, at Haulbowline.

He is also hoping the Government would agree to an overall health study of people living in Cork’s lower harbour area.

He made his comments yesterday after standing orders were suspended at a council meeting in County Hall to discuss the toxic waste.

An emotional Councillor John Mulvihill said he wanted the council to apply pressure to the OPW to ensure the expert group meets as soon as possible.

The Labour Party councillor was incensed the OPW had not set up a committee, despite being ordered to do so by the Minister for the Environment John Gormley back in July 2009.

Mr Mulvihill, who lost his own wife to cancer some years ago, said cancer rates in Cobh were 37% higher than the national average.

“This is a very serious issue. We’ve had meetings with ministers and this guy and that guy and nothing has happened. We want this site cleaned up. It is the council which will eventually have to do this,” Mr Mulvihill said.

He is also deeply concerned that the navy had applied for a licence to dredge part of the harbour to prevent silt affecting its operations. He pointed out the basin where the navy was planning to dredge was the location where ships had been loaded to take some of the Haulbowline waste for disposal in Germany.

The German company wrote to contractors exporting the waste to say they were unhappy with the levels of Chromium 6 in the shipments.

Mr Mulvihill stated Chromium 6 was one of the most lethal carcinogens known to man.

He said no dredging licence should be granted until experts had tested any possible contamination of the silt.

“I want the manager to strongly protest to the Taoiseach’s office and the Departments of Defence and Environment about all this,” Mr Mulvihill said.

Cllr Sean O’Connor, also from Cobh, further revealed to colleagues his wife had also died of cancer.

He said there had been a big increase in recent years in cancer and asthma in his town.

Mr O’Connor (Ind) said the town had also witnessed a recent increase in MS, including many younger people.

He said fishermen in the lower harbour were concerned such dredging could prove harmful to the marine environment.

Cllr Noel Collins (Ind) said the toxic dump had got the “blind-eyed treatment” from the Government to date.

“It is typical of the OPW. That the group hasn’t met is absolutely deplorable,” Cllr Michael Hegarty (FG) said.

The county manager said he had attended a number of meetings with Department of Environment officials and he said he thought he had impressed on them the need for a health baseline study – a complete assessment of the local population’s health.

“The council should continue to press for that. Only when we get the steering committee in place can we get the clean-up started. We really want that committee in place,” Mr Riordan said.