The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has sought legal advice on how a hazardous waste dump operated by the Ispat steel company at its plant in Cork should be made safe.
The EPA confirmed yesterday that the question of making the dump safe and who should pay for the operation was discussed at its board meeting on Tuesday and that legal advice had been called for in order to "clarify a number of issues".
The agency also confirmed that hazardous materials from the steel-making process at the Haulbowline plant had been dumped in the open landfill and that the materials in question should more properly have been sent for treatment to an appropriate facility.
A spokesman said while there were concerns for the long-term environmental implications, the dump posed no immediate threat to human health.
The EPA issued Ispat with an integrated pollution licence last Friday under which the company would have had to spend about £6 million rectifying out-of-date machinery which caused serious air and land-based pollution, particularly from uncontrolled emissions of dust-carrying metallic particles.
It is widely believed that the projected cost to Ispat of putting in place the necessary environmental protection measures was the reason behind the company's decision to close the plant last week.
Today in Cork a liquidator will be appointed at a creditors' meeting.
The EPA spokesman said that by closing the plant the issue of emissions to the atmosphere had been removed.
There remained, however, the question of the hazardous dump on the site and how it should be treated and made safe. The agency's legal advisers were due to make their views known within days.