Pollutants which pose a risk to public health are leaking without control from a large tailings facility attached to a disused mine at Silvermines in north Tipperary, an Environmental Protection Agency investigation has found.
The facility, which stores waste from the now defunct Mogul mine, "represents a perpetual risk to human health and the environment", according to the EPA. The lead-zinc mine closed in 1982. Ennex International, another mineral resources company, took over Mogul in 1984.
The Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, who is a local TD, said the report contained "very damning" information. It raised questions about the way the tailings pond had been disposed of.
The EPA is to make a formal complaint to the Department of Marine and Natural Resources, citing the way Mogul/Ennex handled the facility containing tailings waste - a fine silt produced by metal ore processing following extraction of metal concentrate from finely crushed rock. In its report published yesterday, the EPA finds "significant resources" are needed to ensure the site is maintained properly, and to prevent hazardous tailings becoming airborne under certain climatic conditions. It also concludes that "Mogul/Ennex would appear to have committed an offence under the Waste Management Act" in transferring the land to a farmer, Mr James O'Shea of Kildimo, Co Limerick.
In November, he began to graze sheep on the 150-acre area which was formerly a tailings pond. This aroused concern among local residents, including members of Silvermines Action Group, which is campaigning against a plan to convert a separate mine in the area - the former Magcobar open-cast mine - to a large landfill.
The pond was filled in and rehabilitated in the mid-1980s after toxic dust clouds were released when it dried out, forcing some local people to evacuate their homes.
Labour senator Ms Kathleen O'Meara said the report was "damning of what had gone on at the site for many years". She said that "Ennex must now take responsibility for it". A spokesman for Ennex International said it would not comment in detail until it had reviewed the EPA report. It stressed, however, that "Mogul of Ireland, the previous owner of the tailings site, came into the ownership of Ennex in 1984, two years after final closure of the mining operation, with which Ennex had no association".
Following "a dust-blow incident" in 1985, Mogul took remedial action funded entirely by Ennex. After 1986, there were no further dust blows, he noted.
Ennex was concerned at what it claimed were inaccurate references to it in the report. All available information, notably a large data bank in Ennex's possession were not availed of, he claimed. Ennex had "caused Mogul to work diligently with all relevant agencies since 1985, and regrets any attempt to denigrate the considerable contribution it has made to making the tailings area secure".
