Muir says protecting Derry’s drinking water key as he prepares to launch Mobuoy consultation this week  - video Dailymotion

Muir says protecting Derry’s drinking water key as he prepares to launch Mobuoy consultation this week

Transcript

00:00Safeguarding public health, ensuring safe drinking water and reducing the

00:05environmental impact of the Maboy site is of paramount importance to me. My

00:12department recognises that it has a duty under the Water Northern Ireland Order

00:151999 to promote the cleanliness of water in waterways and underground strata and

00:21will continue to take action to safeguard water quality and the

00:24environment at Maboy. There is no room for complacency and I take a discharge

00:29of this duty very seriously. To this end my officials have produced draft

00:35technical remediation strategy for the Maboy site. The draft remediation strategy

00:41has been developed to mitigate against the long-term risk that the contaminated

00:45site poses to water quality in the River Fawn and to address contamination of the

00:51Fawn ground water body. Northern Ireland Water's Carmoni Water Treatment Works takes

00:57the supply from the river water abstracted less than two kilometres downstream of the

01:02Maboy site and safeguarding the drinking water supply and the environment is

01:06unequivocally a priority for me. There is no room for complacency and that is why I am

01:12now moving to launch the consultation on a draft remediation strategy designed to

01:17address the risks posed by the Maboy site. My officials will require some time, likely to be

01:22just a few days, to address the logistical details of the launch of the consultation

01:27but I hope to launch it later this week with the engagement events planned for

01:31September. This was an abhorrent crime of an industrial scale and I've been on the

01:38record before I took up this job and I'm happy to confirm it again today that I do

01:42believe there's merit for a public inquiry. So I will be taking a paper to my

01:46executive colleagues in regards to this but the cost associated with the site you

01:50rightly outline is likely to be significant. This could cost up to 700

01:55million pounds to remediate this site and I will be looking to the UK

01:59Government not just in terms of financial support in terms of any future

02:03public inquiry but also in terms of the remediation of the site because these are

02:07significant costs for us as an executive to bear whilst we're continuing to

02:12deliver public services in Northern Ireland and also to do the good work in

02:16terms of supporting agriculture and improving our environment more broadly.