Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-09-05-Speech-1-100"
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"en.20050905.19.1-100"2
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".
Mr President, I welcome this report and encourage the rapporteur to keep fighting for as strong a directive as possible.
In Ireland, as in many other places, we cannot begin to deal with the problem of deteriorating human health or clean up our environment without tackling the problem of old mines and the waste that was left behind when the mines were closed and the mining companies dissolved.
In Silvermines, County Tipperary, a 147-acre, 40-foot high plateau of fine red toxic tailing pond blights the area and in dry weather the dust blows across several counties. Mud lagoons dissolve the mercury, arsenic, cadmium, antimony and many other toxic minerals, and channel them via neighbouring streams straight into the Shannon River, only metres away from where the water supply for Limerick City is taken. Animals and, most importantly, people in the area suffer from an incredible range – a tragic range – of diseases, the kind that demonstrate an environmental attack on the immune system. That is a sin from the past; the company concerned has gone and the mess needs to be cleaned up.
A further problem is that one of the biggest industries in the west of Ireland is a company that ships mining waste into Ireland. It is on an island and has its own docks. It brings in bauxite to make alumina. It claims that it is safe and it creates big red mud tailings ponds. That industry wants to expand this year, next year and the year after. The rate of animal death in the area was so alarming that it sparked an investigation a number of years ago, which documented unprecedented animal deaths. It was not uncommon for farmers – and these are not large farms – to have lost 150 animals per farm in the area around the industry. Also very startling was the amount of human death from cancer and the amount of learning disability among children. We need very strong …"@en1
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