A company which operated a zinc mine and a dump for ore waste near Silvermines, Co Tipperary, will be required to clean up the two sites under compulsion from a legal mechanism never before used, the chairman of an inter-agency group has said.
Mr Aidan Murray said yesterday that the group, which produced the report on the presence and influence of lead in the area, took legal advice that Mogul Ireland, now a subsidiary of Ennex International, was liable under the terms of its mining lease.
Mr Raphael Kelly, a principal officer at the Department of the Marine and Natural Resources, said a clause in the lease conferred a once-off liability on companies which operated in the area to rectify the lands affected by their activities.
His Department has put Mogul on notice of its liability under the Mineral Developments Acts. Mogul operated a mine at Garryard from 1968 to 1982 and used a tailings pond two miles away at Gortmore as a dump.
The inter-agency investigation into lead contamination in the vicinity of Silvermines decided it did not pose a risk to human health. It concluded that the area was safe to live in, provided certain precautions were taken, notably restrictions on schoolchildren accessing particular areas and care with food production.
The report, published yesterday by the Department of Agriculture, has, however, confirmed that children were being exposed to unacceptably high levels of lead in a school playing area.
Following a year-long investigation, which included evaluation of blood samples taken from the local population, the report calls for a specialist group to be established to formulate guidelines on the management of lead.
The report highlights an urgent need to reduce risks posed to local children by elevated levels of lead in the play area of Silvermines national school.
The school playing area should be resurfaced immediately, as underlying soil was shown to have an exceptionally high lead content.
Experts from the Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency, Teagasc, the Mid Western Health Board, Tipperary (North Riding) County Council and the Department of Marine and Natural Resources participated in the investigation, which has made 39 recommendations.
In view of the findings, the report calls for a programme of annual blood-level surveillance for children in the area.