Vast quantities of highly toxic waste including Chromium 6, a carcinogenic substance, lead, mercury and pcbs have been uncovered at Cork Harbour. This is a good report from the Examiner.

http://www.examiner.ie/irishexaminer/pages/story.aspx-qqqg=ireland-qqqm=ireland-qqqa=ireland-qqqid=65984-qqqx=1.asp

BreakingNews today said -

Quote :

A residents group in Cork says it has lost confidence in the Environment Minister and the EPA following the latest environmental scandal to hit the area.

Concerns have been raised this morning about the way in which hazardous waste at the former Irish Steel plant in Haulbowline is being disposed.

The Government has reportedly ordered a sub-contractor to seal a number of "lagoons" containing huge amounts of toxic by-products rather than removing the material for disposal.

The Department of the Environment, the EPA and Cork County Council are also being accused of trying to cover up the amount of hazardous waste buried at the site.

The Cork Harbour Alliance for a Safe Environment says it has no faith in Minister John Gormley or the EPA to properly address the situation.

Meanwhile, attempts by Labour Party TD Joan Burton to seek answers from Mr Gormley in the Dáil this morning were ruled out of order by the Ceann Comhairle.

Dan Boyle of the Green Party has campaigned for years on this issue.

RTE says Gormley is going to report on this in the autumn.

Quote :

Environment Minister John Gormley plans to study the best way to deal with hazardous waste buried at Haulbowline Island in Cork harbour.

Mr Gormley has said he hopes to bring a report to Government in the autumn which will outline options to deal with more than half a million tonnes of waste buried on the island.

A report in today's Irish Examiner claims that the waste - which came from the former Irish Ispat steel plant on the island - contains the highly toxic chemical Chromium 6.

AdvertisementThe chemical, also known as hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)), causes cancer and is the same material against which US activist and film heroine Erin Brockovich campaigned.

For more than 60 years, steel production at Haulbowline turned the 20-acre island in Cork harbour into one of the most dangerous dumps in the country.

In the decade before the steel plant closed in 2001, more than half a million tonnes of hazardous waste was dumped there, and when it finally closed the big question was what could be done with the material to make the site safe.

The Department of Environment took control of the site in 2003 and since then it has been trying to establish exactly what is buried there and what risks it poses.

A sub-contractor involved in a surface clearance at the site claims to have uncovered levels of the toxin hexavalent chromium or Chromium 6, and he has accused the department of a cover-up to conceal the health risks which the waste poses.


However, the department has denied this and Mr Gormley says his officials are finalising a report on the options for dealing with the dump at Haulbowline.

The assertions by the contractors that they had been given instructions by the Department of the Environment to leave these substances in situ with a light covering, contrary to legal requirement to remove them, appear serious to me. The substances named are highly damaging to human systems.

Quote :

The chemical, also known as hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)),
causes cancer and is the same material against which US activist and
film heroine Erin Brockovich campaigned.

I knew I had heard of this stuff before. I've seen that very good movie a few times.

Covering this stuff over isn't worth a crap. I think it seeps down into the groundwater. If the movie was any way accurate, this stuff is lethal.

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

.....If the movie was any way accurate, this stuff is lethal.

Looks like it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexavalent_chromium

cactus flower wrote:

Breaking News wrote:

The Government has reportedly ordered a sub-contractor to seal a number of "lagoons" containing huge amounts of toxic by-products rather than removing the material for disposal.

The Department of the Environment, the EPA and Cork County Council are also being accused of trying to cover up the amount of hazardous waste buried at the site.

The Cork Harbour Alliance for a Safe Environment says it has no faith in Minister John Gormley or the EPA to properly address the situation.

Meanwhile, attempts by Labour Party TD Joan Burton to seek answers from Mr Gormley in the Dáil this morning were ruled out of order by the Ceann Comhairle.

Dan Boyle of the Green Party has campaigned for years on this issue.

RTE says Gormley is going to report on this in the autumn.

Breaking News wrote:

Environment Minister John Gormley plans to study the best way to deal with hazardous waste buried at Haulbowline Island in Cork harbour.

The Department of Environment took control of the site in 2003 and since then it has been trying to establish exactly what is buried there and what risks it poses.

A sub-contractor involved in a surface clearance at the site claims to have uncovered levels of the toxin hexavalent chromium or Chromium 6, and he has accused the department of a cover-up to conceal the health risks which the waste poses.

However, the department has denied this and Mr Gormley says his officials are finalising a report on the options for dealing with the dump at Haulbowline.

The assertions by the contractors that they had been given instructions by the Department of the Environment to leave these substances in situ with a light covering, contrary to legal requirement to remove them, appear serious to me. The substances named are highly damaging to human systems.

P.ie - Dan Boyle's attack on Labour
http://www.politics.ie/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=37841

I don't know if Joan Burton or Labour have any grounds to be attacking Gormley on this - the problem goes back 60 years, and judging from the above, was known to be an issue since 2003 plus Boyle has been aware of it for years - this could be a massive scandal seething underneath the surface and Gormley could be only the very most irrelevant tip of it (I wouldn't trust the EPA in my wildest dreams) and irrelevant in many ways although the story is out now so a cover-up job is moot. If this is a cover up it's been going on for years is what I'm saying - it's useless and desperately unproductive to blame Gormley now; the situation needs to be addressed by whatever means is necessary to get this stuff out of the local environment and treated.

Something appears to be very wrong here. Everyone should come clean and put together a proper history of what has happened on this site over the years, what environmental reports have been prepared at various stages and whether or not environmental regulations have been complied with. It seems that a detailed on-the-ground survey is needed urgently as a government spokesperson said yesterday that they weren't aware of the lagoons.
For a digger to break into one of these things accidentally when asked to cover it is horrific.

Costs of dealing with this are being quoted at over 300 million although I don't know how they can say when there appears not to be proper knowledge of what is there.

Remind you of Montana at all Auditor#9?

I would be happier if John Gormley was pushing for full transparency and accountability (and immediate appropriate action) on this, rather than getting into arguments with Labour over who did what when.

cactus flower wrote:

Remind you of Montana at all Auditor#9?

I would be happier if John Gormley was pushing for full transparency and accountability (and immediate appropriate action) on this, rather than getting into arguments with Labour over who did what when.

Yes Montana - the mining companies left huge messes that the Federal Government had to pay to have cleaned up. Externalities, is it ?

Squabbling and blaming and God knows what else will not be good for anyone here so I think Labour should keep stumm on it now, roll up their sleeves and get their heads into the issue too.

Maybe I've been watching too much of the X-files lately but in positions where well-meaning individuals are up against secretive practices by Government bodies then I feel for Gormley.

This isn't backwoods Montana but an area close to a population centre of well over 100,000 people who regularly interact in some way or another with that harbour.

Auditor #9 wrote:

cactus flower wrote:

Remind you of Montana at all Auditor#9?

I would be happier if John Gormley was pushing for full transparency and accountability (and immediate appropriate action) on this, rather than getting into arguments with Labour over who did what when.

Yes Montana - the mining companies left huge messes that the Federal Government had to pay to have cleaned up. Externalities, is it ?

Squabbling and blaming and God knows what else will not be good for anyone here so I think Labour should keep stumm on it now, roll up their sleeves and get their heads into the issue too.

Maybe I've been watching too much of the X-files lately but in positions where well-meaning individuals are up against secretive practices by Government bodies then I feel for Gormley.

This isn't backwoods Montana but an area close to a population centre of well over 100,000 people who regularly interact in some way or another with that harbour.

Agreed. Everyone needs to put heads together to sort this one out, and make sure we don't do it again. I would not want to be one of the people at Haulbowline working right next to the tailings ponds.

As we aren't an industrialised country we haven't been through the massive pollution and contamination experiences that they have in the UK and other older industrial economies had in the 19th and 20th centuries. I think that explains why it is hard to get planners and politicians to take seriously the need to keep industry separate from other activities.
You often find industrial and residential zones bang next to each other with no buffer zone between.

Last year I was reading about the use of plants to extract heavy metals for detoxification of polluted soils. It sounded very promising, harvesting the plants to regain the heavy metals. Unfortunately can't find a suitable link and a bit short of time today.

http://www.examiner.ie/irishexaminer/pages/story.aspx-qqqg=ireland-qqqm=ireland-qqqa=ireland-qqqid=66086-qqqx=1.asp

If this report in the Irish Examiner report is correct, the Government has 'misled the Dail' about the existence of a report on subsurface contamination, there has been no liaison between the EPA, Cork County Council and the HSA and the only reason this story has come to the light of day is because Stephen Griffin the contractor went straight to the Press. The report also states that John Gormley cancelled a meeting with Mr. Griffin by text because he "didn't like the way the story had been broken".

Quote :

Before the Dail debate Just hours earlier during a visit to Cork, Environment Minister John Gormley insisted there was no risk to public health from hazardous waste. “I have been assured that the highest environmental standards are being applied and that people will not have been exposed to any risk,” said Mr Gormley. “People are living in an area free of risk and there is no health hazard.”

So, that would have been Dick Roche then ?

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

So, that would have been Dick Roche then ?

Someone called Maire Hoctor. Who is she, and why is this her moment of fame?

Just finished watching Erin Brokovich again. Great movie.

cactus flower wrote:

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

So, that would have been Dick Roche then ?

Someone called Maire Hoctor. Who is she, and why is this her moment of fame?

Máire Hoctor is the Minister of State as Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government.

So she's reporting to me?

cactus flower wrote:

So she's reporting to me?

For the moment anyway. Brandubh will take over when the Revolution is complete.

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

cactus flower wrote:

So she's reporting to me?

For the moment anyway. Brandubh will take over when the Revolution is complete.

Zhou (or was it expatgirl) tried that a few months ago but the people's militia prevailed and the insurgency collapsed with ignominy

Am I alone in finding Gormley's behaviour beyond appalling on this. He gives the appearance of thinking that people in Cork are of a lesser intelligence. White Young Green have not completed their study, and he continues with the "don't frighten the horses" line.

Quote :

Minister for the Environment John Gormley said he hopes a report commissioned by him into the toxic waste site at Haulbowline Island will reassure people there are no health risks associated with it.

The minister was in Cork today to meet county councillors, members of Cobh Town Council, local groups and consultants White, Young and Green — who are carrying out the report on the site.

Minister for Defence Willie O’Dea said yesterday a separate report carried out by RPM Consulting for his department found there was no risk to human health in the area.
Both reports were commissioned in late June after it emerged that 500,000 tonnes of waste, including carcinogenic materials, had been found buried at the former Irish Steel site.
In the following days, Minister Gormley commissioned consultants White, Young and Green to carry out tests on the site. It was to involve analysis of soil, slag, dust, and surface and ground water samples for all likely contaminants, including heavy metals such as chromium.
“They are doing everything. It is a comprehensive study looking at soil, air, wind direction. It is a confidence-building measure,” he said.
He said the study was a continuation of work done on the site by White, Young and Green in 2005. In that report they found there was no immediate risk to human health or the environment.

“They are the experts. They have the baseline data,” he said.
Speaking this morning he said he did not know what the results of the latest study were yet. However, he said he hoped they would offer people reassurance. He stressed every piece of information available to him would be made available to the public. He said there was no question the site would have to be cleaned up.

“On the basis of the assessment we will decide what way to proceed. It all depends on what the site will be used for in the future, whether it will be park, or commercial or residential. There is no question the site has to be cleaned up — but to what level has to be determined.”
He dismissed claims the report was delayed. When the consultants began their work in early July it was reported he said it would take five weeks to complete.
However, he will get preliminary results today which he will present to the meeting and the final report will not be completed for several weeks.

He said the no confidence vote by county councillors at a meeting of the local authority on Monday was ‘unfortunate’. “Why would you want to meet with a minister you have no confidence in? There is a lot of political posturing going on. If you look at what I have done, I have been more transparent and done far more work on the site than any other minister.
“I think what should be of the uppermost importance is the welfare of the people,” he said.

(Evening Echo)

RTE showed one councillor going ape, I think justifiably, at being told they were only "posturing".

The idea that this site could ever be reclaimable for residential use is beyond belief.

Quote :

Gormley unable to say what will happen to Haulbowline site

By Paul O’Brien, Political Correspondent
ENVIRONMENT Minister John Gormley will be unable to say how the former Irish Steel plant will be dealt with until a Government decision is made on the issue.


A spokesman for Mr Gormley reiterated last night that the minister would be bringing an “options paper” to cabinet “early in the new year”.

But the spokesman said the minister could not indicate in advance what actions the Government might take, as a formal cabinet decision would have to be made on the matter.

“The minister is committed to bringing a formal memorandum to Government outlining possible ways forward. It will then be subject of a Government decision. The outcome of the Government decision cannot be pre-empted at this stage,” the spokesman said.

Consultants hired by Mr Gormley to carry out a risk assessment of the East Tip of the steel plant found it posed no identifiable risk to the health of local residents.

However, they found that recent excavations on the East Tip had exposed sludge material which could form dust in dry weather periods and therefore pose a future airborne threat. The consultants therefore recommended that these excavations be backfilled....>>>>

Read the article here - Examiner

A few questions occur to me:

Is Gormley carrying out his promise that "every piece of information available to him would be made available to the public", as he stated in September (see above)?

Will he -- can he -- follow through on his promise that the site will be "cleaned up"?

The headline is not reassuring:

Quote :

Gormley unable to say what will happen to Haulbowline site

Dan Boyle talked about

Quote :

... some sort of containment measures. You’re either talking about topping, capping, some kind of sheeting or some wall around the perimeter of the East [Tip] in particular that would stop any potential seepage — all of which will have cost implications.

Does anyone think such measures would be really safe?

Another thing that worries me is that, almost certainly, one of the dangerous pollutants in Haulbowline is fluoride (see "steel" links here), and Gormley's ability to do a u-turn on fluoride contamination is disturbing. Cork also happens to be Ireland's hotbed of fluoridation promoters (Micheál Martin, Prof Helen Whelton, Prof Denis O'Mullane, Prof William Reville, Prof Albert Flynn, Dr Deborah Chapman, and Dr Paul Beirne -- all UCC), who also exert global influence. These are "experts" who, unconscionably, call fluoride a "nutrient".

I am even more worried when I recall the following quotes:

"It cannot be lawful for a state to poison its own people. We have ample evidence that fluoridation is damaging our health." -- Trevor Sargent TD, Feb 1997 (Dáil speech)

"If I'm in government fluoridation will go in the first month in office. That's a guarantee." -- John Gormley TD, Feb 2007

"In Government we would immediately ban water fluoridation." -- Green Party health policy, Dec 2008

soubresauts wrote:

...

Dan Boyle talked about

Quote :

... some sort of containment measures. You’re either talking about topping, capping, some kind of sheeting or some wall around the perimeter of the East [Tip] in particular that would stop any potential seepage — all of which will have cost implications.

Does anyone think such measures would be really safe?
...

I don't. It reminds me of attempts to contain the goop in Chernobyl. It's literally a sweep it under the rug fix. Even if it is safe, it's a cheapskate solution. The island should be properly cleansed. But I suppose we don't have the money to do it right now. Maybe it could be done as a ten year project or something ...

May I recommend the website of Cork Harbour Alliance for a Safe Evnironment (CHASE):

http://www.chaseireland.org/

This is an excellent website with articles, information and letters about this - although their primary focus is of course on preventing the construction of two waste incinerators (one of them for toxic waste) hardly a stones throw from the Haulbowline site.

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

soubresauts wrote:

...

Dan Boyle talked about

Quote :

... some sort of containment measures. You’re either talking about topping, capping, some kind of sheeting or some wall around the perimeter of the East [Tip] in particular that would stop any potential seepage — all of which will have cost implications.

Does anyone think such measures would be really safe?
...

I don't. It reminds me of attempts to contain the goop in Chernobyl. It's literally a sweep it under the rug fix. Even if it is safe, it's a cheapskate solution. The island should be properly cleansed. But I suppose we don't have the money to do it right now. Maybe it could be done as a ten year project or something ...

The only thing I caught from the White Young Green report was that there was Chromium 6 in puddles on the site. Quite how we got from there to "no danger to human health" I don't know.

Selection of articles on Haulbowline toxic waste here:

http://www.chaseireland.org/inthemedia/HaulbowlineToxicWaste.htm

Haulbowline toxic waste health issues website:

http://chromiumharbour.googlepages.com/haulbowlineisland