Twenty building sites sent material containing asbestos

Twenty building sites in Co Wicklow and Dublin were supplied with material contaminated with a cancer-causing mineral from a local quarry.

The sites that received asbestos-containing material from the Co Wicklow quarry include a school under construction in Greystones and a variety of other building projects in the two counties.

The Irish Times revealed last week that Ballinclare quarry in south Wicklow has been closed, after testing last month uncovered the presence of naturally occurring asbestos in the stone it produces.

The problem arose when Kilsaran Group, which owns the quarry, blasted open a new seam of rock in one corner of the site.

Further inquiries have established that 20 sites in the two counties are affected by the dissemination of the contaminated building material from the quarry.

Eleven of these are to be remediated through the removal of contaminated material from nine sites in Co Wicklow and two in Co Dublin.

Some 25,000 tons of material will be returned to the quarry and covered with concrete and soil in order to render it safe, according to Wicklow County Council.

At the remaining sites, the suspect material has been covered with concrete and there is no immediate danger to the public.

The approach to these sites will be considered in a second phase of the remediation process. The council said it plans to step up the remediation of affected sites next week.

At present, work is ongoing at one of the affected sites at Ashford and small amounts of material have been removed from two sites in Co Dublin.

A methodology for dealing with three further sites in Wicklow next week had also been agreed, a spokesman said.

In total, nine sites in Wicklow and two in Dublin have been sealed off and will be subject to remediation, the council said.

Danger

The remaining sites, where the contaminated material has been covered by concrete, do not pose an immediate danger to health.

A council spokesman described the emergence of the naturally occurring asbestos as “a freakish thing” and insisted Kilsaran had done everything it could to deal with the problem after it emerged.

CCTV camera footage has been used to establish the movement of trucks used to transport material from the quarry and so identify where contaminated material might be found.

The blast occurred on April 18th, but the problem with the material was not identified until May 13th, according to the Health and Safety Authority (HSA).

The asbestos was first spotted visually and its presence in the quarry was confirmed by laboratory tests ordered by Kilsaran.

A spokesman for the HSA said following the action taken, the risk posed by the hazardous material was “zero”.

“We have satisfied ourselves there is no risk to the public or to workers.”

Neither was there any evidence to suggest a problem with any material mined from the quarry before the new seam was opened by blasting last April.