November 7th, 2018
The Mayor of Dún Laoghaire has urged the company responsible for a recent plastic spill at Dublin’s Forty Foot to fully pay for the clean-up under the polluter pays principle.
SIAC, the company responsible, was working on the redevelopment of Dún Laoghaire’s baths when plastic fibres washed into the Dublin Bay last week while workers were pouring concrete into the site.
Dún Laoghaire’s Mayor and Green Party Councillor, Ossian Smyth, said that he is outraged by the incident and is demanding that “polluters” accept accountability and pay for the clean-up operation.
“I am outraged that that SIAC, one of Ireland’s largest construction companies, has caused a huge plastic pollution incident along the coast of Dún Laoghaire,” Cllr Smyth said.
Cllr Smyth said the Council is keenly aware of the adverse ecological impact of the spillage. “The spillage is already impacting heavily all along the coast and will cause immense damage to local wildlife and biodiversity,” he said.
Just collected a few of the millions of nasty plastic shards that have been dumped into the sea at Sandycove. This stuff is going to be nigh on impossible to recover pic.twitter.com/L6m6fZbJlp
— John Gibbons (@think_or_swim) November 3, 2018
Plastic spillage into the sea may adversely impact the livelihood of marine species and contaminate water.
SIAC began a massive clean-up mission earlier this week with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council’s crew reportedly offering assistance to the operation.
Expressing frustration at the strain that the incident had prompted in the Council, Cllr Smyth said that he expects SIAC to take care of all the costs related to the operation.
“In line with the principle that the ‘Polluter Pays’, I expect SIAC to pay for the entire clean-up operation, including compensating the Council for the time of our own clean-up crews,” Cllr Smyth said.
Cllr Smyth rebuked SIAC’s operational methods adding that he suspects that the incident was preventable with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) currently investigating the possibility of professional negligence.
“Each piece of work carried out by SIAC is governed by a ‘Work Method Statement’, which specifies exactly how the work should be carried out to avoid this kind of incident,” Cllr Smyth said.
“If the inquiry into this event shows that the correct procedure was not followed, then the Council must consider seeking legal action against the contractors,” he continued.
Cllr Smyth vowed that he will not let corporations contaminate the environment and evade punishment at the same time.
“If you or I released a huge amount of plastic into the sea, we would expect to be prosecuted and exactly the same should apply to building companies,” he said.
All concrete pouring activities have been halted on site until the EPA finishes its investigation into the matter.
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