River Faughan, which supplies drinking water to Londonderry, is being polluted by toxic waste from the biggest illegal dump in Europe.
This is not a new phenomenon, and members of the Faughan Anglers have repeatedly voiced concern about the pollution and environmental damage being done to the river. According to Gerry Quinn, secretary of the Faughan Anglers, illegal dumping on an industrial scale was allowed to continue at Campsie unabated for years.
This problem has been around since at least 2012, and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency has monitored the site since the vast dump of waste was discovered.
A DoE spokesman said: “NIEA is aware that recent and persistent heavy rainfall may have an impact on the hydrogeology of the illegal waste sites at the Mobouy Road. NIEA has regularly inspected the sites over the winter with the aim of identifying and resolving acute problems.â€
Mark Livingstone, Head of Waste Management at the Northern Ireland Environmental Agency said in 2014 that even though 1.5 million litres of contaminated fluid had already been removed from the toxic lake in Campsie, a wet winter could spell disaster.
His warning that this was a disaster waiting to happen basically went unheeded, and heavy rainfall has caused his fears to become a reality, with tonnes of toxic water now running into the River Faughan that supplies drinking water to Londonderry.
It is believed that the volume of rubbish that is being illegally dumped in Mobuoy site in the north-west would fill 400 Olympic-sized swimming pools; it has been estimated that it is in excess of one million tonnes and could cost more than £100m to clean it up.
Quinn stated, “We have met with the current DoE Minister Mark H Durkan and Alex Attwood before him and they said all the right things but didn’t do anything. The minister needs to go to the Assembly and demand the money to get this cleaned up. He also needs to demand from the Executive the money for a public inquiry. The people have a right to know how this environmental catastrophe was allowed to happen and continue for so long.”
Source: The Belfast Telegraph
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