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The Irish Times has reported that the Fine Gael-Labour
coalition government of 1995 gave the buyers of the
Irish Steel plant an undertaking that there was no pollution
on the Haulbowline Island site.
The plant was sold on the basis that it complied with
environmental laws - even though the then government
had been alerted to a build-up of dangerous wastes.
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Frank McDonald, Irish Times Environment Editor
writes that an investigation of the plant's landfill site
- carried out for Irish Steel by engineers KT Cullen
in 1995 - found samples showing high concentrations of copper,
chromium, cadmium, lead and zinc, up to 17 times acceptable
levels.
The investigation also found 'elevated levels of metals'
in harbour sediments adjacent to the landfill. Under a 1981
planning permission granted to Irish Steel, there were no
controls on the material being landfilled or on containing
leachate from the tip.
It is clear from documentation seen by The Irish Times
that the main priority at the time - Irish Steel was sold
to Ispat for the nominal sum of £1 - was to preserve 300 jobs
at the plant for at least five years. The sale agreement -
signed by then Minister for Finance, Ruairí Quinn TD (Labour)
and Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Richard Bruton
TD (Fine Gael) - specified that Ispat would face penalties
of £10,000 per job in any year, if the number of jobs fell
below 300.
A clause in the agreement included a statement that, so far
as the Minister for Finance was aware, Irish Steel 'has,
at all times, complied with the terms and conditions attaching
to any environmental licences in the conduct of its business
... the company has not produced, handled, stored, transported
or otherwise treated or dealt with in any manner whatsoever
on the property any substance, other than in accordance with
environmental law and any applicable environmental licence'.
Nevertheless, the coalition made a 'capital contribution'
of £2.36 million for environmental works to be carried out
by Ispat, including the installation of a metal recovery plant
and the construction of a retaining wall around the tip. This
sea wall was never built - of the £2.3 million given to Ispat,
it is estimated that only £600,000 was actually invested in
environmental works.
Building the wall was one of the conditions of an integrated
pollution control (IPC) licence in 2001.
Although Irish Ispat was known to be polluting the environment,
it was not one of the industries to be scheduled for IPC licensing
by the Environmental Protection Agency as a priority. It was
not until 1999 - three years after taking over - that the
company had to seek a licence.
Apart from requiring the construction of this retaining wall
around the landfill, the licence specified reduced emissions
of dust, dioxins and furans from the furnace, as well as 'fugitive
emissions' from slag handling on site. It laid down that
metal sludge, then being deposited on the landfill, would
have to be 'sent off site and disposed/recovered by an
agreed hazardous waste contractor'. This also applied
to other hazardous wastes arising on site.
Irish Ispat decided to close down before the licence was
issued, owing creditors €36.9 million. It was owned by Indian
steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, who - according to the Sunday
Times Rich List - is worth £27.7 billion (€34.7 billion).
The High Court found in July 2004 that the conditions attached
to the IPC licence, granted in June 2001, were 'onerous'
- particularly the requirement to build the sea wall at an
estimated cost of £25 million.
The court case arose from an action by government ministers
seeking to make Irish Ispat (then in voluntary liquidation)
responsible for a clean-up. The State side issued a summons
against the firm and Ispat International on May 21st, 2003
- claiming damages for nuisance, negligence, breach of statutory
duty, breach of contract and allowing escape of 'deleterious
matter'.
Geraldine Tallon, now secretary general of the Department
of the Environment, said in an affidavit that there was "serious
environmental pollution at the site in Haulbowline as a result
of holding, recovering or disposing of waste by the respondents
[Irish Ispat]".
The State was seeking to require Ispat to dispose of radioactive
scrap and sources, demolish contaminated buildings, rectify
the site's polluted drainage system and remediate the landfill
site, including the removal of PCB (polychlorinated biphenyl)
'hot spots'.
However, liquidator Ray Jackson argued that steel-making
had been carried on for more than 60 years and it would be
unfair if creditors had to bear the clean-up cost.
Judge Mella Carroll ruled that, because the licence was granted
after Ispat had ceased production, its conditions could not
be applied retrospectively. She also found the pollution was
a legacy of 60 years of steel-making.
In 2005, after ownership reverted to the State, the Department
of the Environment commissioned consultants - White Young
Green - to investigate the site. They concluded that there
was no 'immediate threat' to human health or the environment.
The same consultants have been engaged by John Gormley to
carry out an 'independent and rigorous assessment of site
conditions following extensive unauthorised works by sub-contractors
of Hammond Lane Metal Company Ltd' (Click
Here).
This assessment, which started last week, will involve analysis
of soil, slag, dust, surface and ground water samples. It
is known that the carcinogenic substance chromium 6
is present. The site will have to be remediated. No one can
say, at this point, how much this will cost.
Source - The Irish Times
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