A marine environmental scientist has started crowdfunding to pay for legal costs to put forward a case against the government for dumping contaminated material into the sea.

Kevin Kennington has called out the government for the dumping of the material in 2016 shortly prior to announcing the Isle of Man as a UNESCO Biosphere - an area where locals work with biodiversity and its sustainable use.

He has so far raised over £3,000 of his £10,000 goal to put forward the case of constructive dismissal.

Previously, an investigation found that an unnamed senior Manx civil servant sanctioned the deliberate dumping of contaminated silt into the Irish sea.

The silt was known to contain polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heavy metals, which are banned because they cause a range of detrimental environmental and human health conditions including cancer, effects on the immune system, reproductive systems, nervous system and endocrine systems.

This action ignored local and international agreements, according to Dr Kennington.

chemicals

Sediments analysed from Peel Harbour found there were numerous chemicals that exceeded environmental standards. Dr Kennington said it caused ’significant pollution’ in Peel Bay.

In a statement, he said: ’The government’s legal team had argued that there was no case to answer on their part and requested the employment tribunal to strike out the case. A strike-out hearing was held in May 2021.

’However, on arriving at the tribunal the government’s own legal team immediately withdrew the strike-out application.

’As a result, my legal fees have cost over £70,000 so far, the majority of this spent on preparing for the strike-out hearing.

’I believe this to have been a deliberate strategy by the government to waste my legal representative’s time, my limited financial resources. This of course has led to further stress and mental anguish.’

He added: ’[UNESCO Biosphere status] is a huge coup for the island and it is wrong that the government departments, which have responsibility for protecting the environment, can jeopardise this status, contrary to the advice given to them by professional officers. I believe this is nothing less than environmental vandalism.’

He is collating witness statements which he expects to exchange ’sometime in February’. The tribunal dates have been set for between March 29 and the April 5.