§ Mr. AllenTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate she has made of when the container of Lindane lost on 13 March 1989 in the sinking of MV Perintis will corrode; and what impact it will have on fish. [115894]
§ Mr. MorleyAnnual monitoring for evidence of Lindane in the area of the English Channel where MV Perintis sunk was undertaken between 1989 and 1993. This found that Lindane concentrations in seawater were low. The conclusion was that the English Channel had not been contaminated as a result of the sinking and that the container of Lindane on MV Perintis had sunk intact.
The Lindane (a pure, crystalline material not formulated in a carrying solvent) was packed in plastic sacks within the container. Advice from Defra"s Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science is that dissolution of the Lindane in seawater at the ambient seabed temperature, leaching from the sacks, and diffusion from within the container into the surrounding water, are all likely to be slow processes and the impact on marine life is therefore expected to be negligible.