Scrap yard on reservoir to be shut

A LOCAL authority is poised to shut down and clean up an unauthorised end-of-life vehicle compound located next to a reservoir which supplies drinking water to 95,000 people, a court heard yesterday.

Taxpayers will have to foot Cork County Council’s €16,000 clean-up bill to remove about 140 cannibalised vehicles, car parts, tyres, and batteries stored on the three-acre site at Coolcower, just outside Macroom in Co Cork.

Hazardous materials on the site, which juts into part of the River Lee’s reservoir system, include hydrocarbons, PCBs, lead and battery acid.