County council aims to expand landfill

THE Gortadroma landfill in West Limerick will have no more space next year at current usage but may have its life span extended by 15 to 20 years, a Bord Pleanála oral hearing in Limerick was told yesterday.

Limerick County Council want to open up 19 additional hectares for waste disposal, adjacent to the current 11 hectares landfill site which was opened in 1990 and is now nearly full.

Local residents, along with Gortadroma Action Group, Kilcoleman National School and anglers, are objecting to the planned extension.

Laurence O’Toole, an engineer with the private company in charge of the ongoing remediation and development of the landfill at Gortadroma, said there was an urgent need to provide additional landfill capacity for the Limerick region.

The preferred option was an extension to Gortadroma.

This extension, he said, would see landfill waste disposal capacity at Gortadroma increased by about two million tonnes.

Gortadroma had space for about 210,000 tonnes of waste at the beginning of the year. Given that the site is licensed to take 130,000 tonnes a year, the site could potentially be exhausted in 2005.

With an additional 19 hectares, at Gortadroma, the Region’s residual waste requirements could be met there for the next 15 to 20 years, he said.

Mr O’Toole said the current Waste Licence for Gortadroma caps waste at 130,000 tonnes per year and it was not proposed to request any significant change in the amount of waste being brought there. Some other site options also adjacent to Gortadroma were ruled out because of a variety of reasons including the presence of a holy well, a burial ground and ESB pylons.

An additional 22 hectares, said Mr O’Toole, would be used to form a buffer between the landfill extension and local residences.

This buffer zone would also be used for the disposal of excavated material.

“It is envisaged that the excavated material will be regraded, seeded and planted so that a natural landscape can be created to mitigate against negative views and operation and construction noise,” said Mr O’Toole.

He listed 11 studies which have examined the potential impacts on people and the environment.

“The various studies conclude that the site is suitable for an extension to Gortadroma Landfill. They state that there will be no potential impact from the proposed extension on a national or regional scale.

“However, it is observed in some of the studies that the proposed extension will potentially impact at a local level. Mitigation measures will reduce, and in many cases eliminate, these potential impacts,” said Mr O’Toole.

The hearing at the Kilmurry Lodge Hotel is expected to last until Friday.