In Pictures: Toxic fuel waste dumping continues to scourge south Armagh

by
Staff Reporter
October 11, 2015

Fuel waste dumped in Upper Darkley, county Armagh

These pictures highlight the latest incident which has become the scourge of the county Armagh border region.

Two cubes of toxic waste were dumped under the cover of darkness in the upper Darkley area of south Armagh on Friday night.

A resident of the area sent us the pictures (below) to put the spotlight on an issue which is plaguing the area as well as hitting taxpayers’ pockets.

This latest incident comes less than a month after Environment Minister Mark Durkan called for greater north-south co-operation to protect and promote the environment.

Speaking at the time the Minister said: “We have been jointly tackling the scourge of waste crime – by cleaning up illegal land fill sites in border regions and strong enforcement action.

“The border region – and in particular the Newry and Mourne and south Armagh region – is plagued with the dumping of fuel laundered waste.

“I therefore support the call for more determined action to eliminate the activities of organised crime gangs, including the establishment of a permanent, full time multidisciplinary task force.

“The National Crime Agency can play a key role in this.”

Earlier this year the Sunday Independent claimed it had obtained evidence of carcinogenic waste flowing from an illegal fuel plant in south Armagh into Lough Muckno, Lough Ross and the Fane River.

The report said that “around 40,000 people living in Dundalk – plus another 8,000 in the Provos’ own heartland of Crossmaglen in south Armagh – are drinking water from the system that is being poisoned by the IRA fuel launderers.”