THE pollution of lands north of the Castletown River surrounding the Texaco filling station at the Newry Road was raised by Cllr Conor Keelan at last week's meeting of Dundalk Town Council.

The Fianna Fáil councillor tabled a number of questions about the problem which was first discovered in 1990 and which last year led to Texaco's parent company Chevron (Ireland) Ireland buying a number of houses from the residents of Maxwell's Terrace.

He said he was raising the matter as he felt it was necessary that a report be prepared to brief councillors as to the extent of the hydrocarbon pollution.

Cllr Keelan asked the council to prepare a report to brief councillors 'on the current status of the hydrocarbon pollution problem to the lands and residences surrounding the Texaco filling station beside the Big Bridge on the Newry Road.'

He wants the report to detail the measures which have been implemented by the town council management to indentify/contain/ control/eliminate the source of this serious pollution problem since it was first discovered in 1990.

He also wanted to know how much of the hydrocarbon product had been accidentally released from the Texaco filling station storage/ dispensing system into the environment since 1990 and how much of it was still 'on site' and what proportion has leached into the adjoining Castletown River and embedded into the riverbed mud or being washed out into Dundalk Bay and the Irish Sea.

The report should show if certification exists to confirm that the leaking of hydrocarbon product has ceased.

He was told that this was a matter for the Environment Section of Louth County Council and that his questions had been forwarded to them.

Cllr Keelan also wanted the council to write to Texaco to find out when it is proposed to bring the now boarded up houses at Maxwell's Terrace into housing stock.

And he wanted to know what was the timescale for developing the wasteland which is bounded by the Castletown River, railway embankment, the Moorland Road, the Armagh Road house, the Newry Road houses and the Texaco filling station into a recreation area/ flood prevention open space.

Town Clerk Mr Frank Pentony said that while the lands may be zoned it didn't mean that the town council would develop them. He pointed out very little of the land was owned by the town council apart from the landfill site.

Chairman Cllr Martin Bellew said they were 'talking in the dark' until they get the reports.

- Margaret RODDY