The Attorney General says it would be in the public interest to hold a full investigation into the dumping into the sea of potentially toxic material from an old landfill site.

’Leachate’, containing a range of contaminants, is regularly taken by tanker from the former Raggatt tip and disposed of into the sewer at Mill Road, Peel, from where it is discharged into the bay through the breakwater outfall.

Campaigner Trevor Cowin, who lives in Peel, claims this is being done in breach of the Public Health Act and Water Pollution Act, having submitted a series of Freedom of Information requests to government.

Now in an email to him, Attorney General John Quinn has confirmed ’there could potentially be a criminal offence to be investigated for breach of the PHA’.

He wrote: ’Without reaching any conclusion I can say that you do raise issues which, on the face of it, may be worthy of further investigation.’

Mr Quinn said ordinarily it would be the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture as the licensing authority to press for enforcement steps to be taken following its own investigation - but the department considers there to be no breach of the licence issued to the Department of Infrastructure.

investigation

He said in his view an authorised officer could now be appointed by the DEFA, DoI or Peel Commissioners to carry out an investigation.

Mr Quinn said: ’You will appreciate that as Attorney General it is not my role to carry out any criminal investigation.

’I can say to you that I do believe it to be in the public interest and a matter of good governance for a full investigation to take place.

He said he would support Mr Cowin in referring the matter to the Cabinet Office under the Water Pollution Act and a call to the DEFA, DOI or Peel Town Commissioners for an investigation under the Public Health Act.

But he added: ’In supporting your call for an investigation I have reached no conclusion whatsoever as to whether there may or may not have been any breach of either or both the WPA or PHA or indeed any other statutory provisions.’

In a statement, the Manx government said it is continuing its internal review of the arrangements in place for the discharge of leachate from the former Raggatt landfill facility.

It said: ’The review will build on the considerable amount of work being carried out to develop a better understanding of the complex challenges associated with the island’s legacy waste disposal sites.’

The DoI, DEFA and Manx Utilities have been working with UK Government specialists to manage the environmental risks in line with Manx legislation and international conventions, it said.

And it added: ’The Isle of Man Government believes the legislation in place to licence discharges into the sea is being consistently applied.

scrutiny

’It takes its environmental and regulatory responsibilities very seriously and has agreed to further scrutiny of its actions.’

It said specialist advice and legal opinion will continue to be sought to identify any changes that may be required, and it would also welcome further independent oversight if that is ’deemed appropriate’ following the internal review.

The method for disposing of leachate from the Raggatt landfill has been in place since the 1990s. Its main objective has been to reduce the environmental impact of the facility, which received domestic, commercial and industrial waste between 1986 and 1990.

The site has internal drains that lead to a leachate holding tank to prevent discharge directly into the River Neb. Leachate is transported by tanker to Peel, where it is deposited into the sewer system and out to sea via the breakwater outfall pipe.

The then Environment Minister Richard Ronan told the House of Keys in July last year that levels of a range of metals, ammonia, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and 225 polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) identified in the leachate exceed environmental quality standards, making it unsuitable for direct discharge into the River Neb.

The government said the leachate is subject to a large degree of dilution before it enters the sea. Samples are analysed regularly and the leachate ’does not pose a risk to people swimming in Peel Bay.

It said: ’While the disposal of leachate at sea has continued for many years, government agencies accept that this approach is not desirable in the longer term and are actively working to find an alternative solution.’

treatment

In July, Infrastructure Minister Ray Harmer told a Tynwald scrutiny committee investigating the IRIS strategy that one such solution could be to treat the leachate at the new regional sewage treatment plant planned for Peel.

He said: ’A number of consultants have come over looking at this, and there is the belief now that we could actually treat the leachate in the regional sewage plant.’