Mobuoy dump: Cost to fix damage could be '£700m'

The Mobuoy site, located on the outskirts of the city, is a former recycling plant

Fixing environmental damage at a large illegal dump site in County Londonderry could cost up to £700m.

The figure is contained in 2022/23 accounts from the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Daera) which have now been published.

They estimate a cost range of between £17m and £700m.

Experts say the Mobuoy site may contain 1.6m tonnes of waste including construction and domestic waste.

The contaminated Mobuoy dump is beside the River Faughan, which supplies a significant proportion of Derry's drinking water.

It was closed in 2013.

Daera Minister Andrew Muir told the Assembly at his first question time there was "no agreed preferred option" for remediation of the site.

But the comptroller and auditor general to the Assembly disagrees.

A note in the annual accounts from Dorinnia Carville says that "conditions are met for the costs [of remediation] to be accounted for" and that a "preferred option" of £107m is deemed a reliable estimate.

'Disagreement'

But including that figure would have resulted in a departmental overspend of more than £89m.

Disagreement between the department and the auditor general resulted in publication of the annual accounts report being delayed until now.

Within the document, Daera says it will "reassess the Mobuoy position" in the departmental group financial statements for the year ended 31st March 2024 and "will ensure" engagement with the audit office at a much earlier stage.

The River Faughan runs past the Mobuoy dump

It is subject to extensive environmental monitoring, including water testing due to its location by the River Faughan.

In March 2023, a number of options for remediation of the site were presented by a team of consultants appointed by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA).

They included removing some waste and capping large areas of the site.

SDLP assembly member Mark Durkan, who served as environment minister from 2013 to 2016, said action at the Mobuoy site is needed as a matter of urgency.

"I have previously described the situation here as a ticking time bomb," Mr Durkan told BBC Radio Foyle's North West Today.

"It does need addressed, the longer it is left without that major work being done, the more of a threat it poses," he said.

Mr Durkan said that he has raised the need for a public inquiry into what went on at the Mobuoy site with Mr Muir.

In September 2022, two men pleaded guilty to a number of charges linked to the unauthorised disposal of waste.

They have yet to be sentenced.