Stormont’s Environment Minister is to ask the British government for help with the clear up costs associated with a huge illegal dump in Co Derry, said to be one of the biggest in Europe.
Andrew Muir MLA said such was the price tag associated with dealing with the aftermath of industrial scale illegal waste disposal near the city of Derry, that Westminster would have to provide money.
Dealing with the huge illegal landfill at Mobuoy on the outskirts of the city is set to cost at least £107 million (€123m) and potentially more.
“I’m going to engage with the Finance Minister on this,” Mr Muir said.
An official pictured testing water close to the Mobuoy site in Co Derry
“But there’s also a case to be made to London. This is a significant cost to the Executive to bear and we’re going to need support because this site is going to need remediated.”
Two businessmen were jailed earlier this year for their part in running a massive waste scam at the site.
The owners of a sand and gravel company and a waste company conspired to bury more than 600,000 tonnes of rubbish across their two adjacent sites.
The court was told that between them they stood to gain more than £40m.
The waste includes construction rubble, domestic waste, metallic waste and toxic tar-based waste.
In some places it is more than 12m deep.
The 46-hectare site is right beside the River Faughan which supplies much of Derry’s drinking water and is a protected site under environmental law.
It is also on the route of a proposed improvement scheme for the Belfast to Derry road and has been responsible for a delay in the project.
The Stormont Executive has just gone to public consultation on a proposed remediation scheme for the Mobuoy dump site.
Two men were jailed earlier this year for their part in running a massive waste scam at the site
It asked experts to assess the environmental risk presented by the site and present options to deal with it.
The experts have recommended that much of the waste is left in situ, with engineering solutions such as biologically active capping, bunding and the creation of wetland filter beds to prevent leachate polluting the river and groundwater.
Some leachate will also be pumped out and treated.
In a number of areas where the site overlaps with the proposed route of a new A6 Belfast to Derry dual carriageway, the waste will be dug out to facilitate the road development.
The Executive is holding a number of public consultation exercises to explain its plan to the public.
Mr Muir travelled to Derry to outline the proposal to elected representatives.
Derry MLA and former environment minister Mark Durkan said he is glad that more than a decade after the dump was discovered some kind of remediation plan was now being considered.
“Plans are great, but action is paramount here,” he said.
“The sooner we see this rolled out the better. The better for the environment. The better for people in Derry who’ve had to live with the threat to their water supply and the better for the economy in the northwest because this has delayed the completion of the road between here and Belfast.”
He said he was concerned that the required money would be secured and questioned whether the remediation of Mobuoy was actually a priority of the Stormont Executive.
He said his party, the SDLP, still supported the holding of a public inquiry into how the dumping was done without detection, to ensure that it could never happened again.