Many people in Navan will wake up to dry taps this morning after a major fire in a synthetic fibre plant on the Meath-Cavan border led to the pollution of their principal water supply. The pollution, caused by the run-off of the large volume of water used to put out the fire, also killed a large number of fish in the Moynalty river, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
The fire started at around midnight on Sunday in a warehouse at the Wellman International plant in Mullagh, near the river. It destroyed two warehouses containing polymers and similar products. Fire tenders from seven towns were used to fight the fire for more than 12 hours.
Yesterday morning, the Eastern Regional Fisheries Board was alerted to the dead fish in the Moynalty, considered one of the area's best trout rivers. A board inspector who walked the river's banks noticed up to 1,000 dead fish.
The Moynalty flows into the Blackwater River which joins the Boyne at Navan.
The EPA instructed Meath County Council yesterday to "suspend supplies of water for human consumption" from the Blackwater River until further notice. All the town's current supply comes from the Blackwater.
The council's senior engineer for sanitary services, Mr Malachy Jenkins, said the first water shortages would come around breakfast time.
He said around half the town would be affected and there would be low water pressure elsewhere. But he stressed that water from the Boyne unaffected by the pollution in the Blackwater would be back on stream by midday. The EPA is currently examining Wellman's application for an Integrated Pollution Control licence.