A long-awaited report on the death of farm animals in the Silvermines area of north Tipperary from lead poisoning will be published next month by the inter-agency investigation group. Residents in the area have been waiting for 16 years for effective remedial action after a tailings pond - a dump for ore waste - began contaminating the area.
Following the death of three cattle with significant lead levels in their blood, the effects of the pollution from the former Mogul Ireland zinc mine were assessed last year. Blood tests on people and cattle were carried out and samples were taken from the soil and herbage in the area.
Senator Kathleen O'Meara said there had been further dust blowing from the tailings pond last month, and it was now a year since the animal deaths which prompted the investigation. There was a need for a short-term solution and "the ability to act fast" during the summer months before the recommendations of the inter-agency group are implemented.
"It is surely not unreasonable to expect that solutions would be available to deal with these dust blows," she said.
The Environmental Protection Agency found evidence of "high polluting leachate" migrating from the tailings pond. It produced the report, which will go to Cabinet before being made public, with the Department of Agriculture, Teagasc, the Mid-Western Health Board, Tipperary North Riding Council and the Department of the Marine and Natural Resources.
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