Tests which showed greatly increased levels of mercury in water near the Kinsale Road landfill site in Cork may have been the result of a faulty testing system, Cork Corporation claimed last night.
If the tests carried out by the local authority in November and April were accurate, then mercury levels were 750 times higher than the permitted level which, according to an EU directive, is one microgram per litre in drinking water.
Yesterday the Bottlehill Environmental Alliance, which is protesting against a proposal to locate a "superdump" in the area, said it had received the figures under the Freedom of Information Act showing that according to tests carried out by Cork Corporation in 1999 mercury levels were up to 750 times above the limit.
Bottlehill is one of four areas earmarked as a possible location for the superdump, and a vehement anti-dump campaign has been going on for some months.
Mr John O'Riordan, a spokesman for the alliance, said the corporation's figures called into question the ability of the local authority to manage a landfill site and were a cause of great concern.
"Figures for November 1999 and April 2000 were of such a pattern and order that they suggest a problem with the sampling and testing involved, and this is being examined," a spokesman for Cork Corporation said, adding that subsequent tests did not confirm the earlier readings.
There was no question of drinking water in Cork being contaminated, he said.