The Environmental Protection Agency says it is reviewing the results of a study on Galway's South Park that found high levels of lead and arsenic in the soil. The grounds of three houses close to the municipal park on the Claddagh have also tested positive for the heavy metal contamination.
Galway City Council has been told that it may take at least 18 months to make the area "safe" by the authors of the study - copies of which have been forwarded to the Health Service Executive (HSE) West and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The 30-acre park overlooking Galway Bay on the Claddagh was issued with public health warning notices last December after it emerged that an NUI Galway researcher had uncovered high levels of heavy metals.
The local authority was criticised by several of its own councillors when it was confirmed it had been given the information some months previously. The park, on reclaimed land, had been used as a landfill up to the 1960s.
The HSE West advised the public not to collect or eat shellfish from the Claddagh area as a precautionary measure while independent analyses were taking place. Schools and sports clubs using pitches were advised to find alternatives, but public walkways across the park were not closed.
A risk assessment by Tobin engineering consultants, which was presented to Galway city councillors this week, has confirmed that lead, benzo(a)pyrene and arsenic are above generic screening values for soil in the northern section of the park.
Lead, arsenic and cadmium have also been identified in three residential properties nearby. The report found that soil metal concentrations in the southern end of the park, the location of a children's playground, do not constitute a risk because the tarmac surface prevents contact.
Foreshore samples show no evidence of metal contamination while early indications from the HSE suggest no evidence of "metal bioaccumulation" in shellfish samples. There was also no risk to groundwater.