Company ‘didn’t notice’ massive dump

ENVIRONMENT Minister Dick Roche yesterday questioned Roadstone’s denial that it had any knowledge of extensive illegal dumping on its land.

Mr Roche said he found it “very difficult to understand” how the company, which has never been prosecuted in relation to the discovery of a massive secret dump on its property at Blessington, Co Wicklow, could not have known about its existence.

“I can not understand how any significant landowner can have very significant dumping on their land without knowing, and I have to say, and I do not want to call anybody a liar, I find it very difficult to understand how anybody would not know what was going on,” he said in an interview on last night’s Prime Time on RTÉ.

“If somebody built a bungalow on any major company’s land without the permission of that company, I am certain they would be stopped. I have no doubts whatsoever about that. If somebody put 100,000 tonnes of waste in your back garden, it’s very hard not to know that it’s there.”

The Prime Time programme catalogued a damning litany of dumping scandals, sloppy practice and breaches of waste disposal law across the country.

In the case of the Blessington dump, discovered three years ago, a new housing estate has since been built only five metres away from the dump site. Environmental guidelines recommend a buffer zone of at least 250 metres but neither the builders, developers, Roadstone nor Wicklow County Council had responsibility for informing the purchasers.

Roadstone issued a statement to the programme-makers saying it was meeting all legal requirements in relation to the site but declined to be interviewed.

A spokesman told the Irish Examiner last night the company was not aware of Mr Roche’s comments and could not respond.

The programme also highlighted Waterford City Council’s failure to operate gas flares and other environmental safety measures at the Kilbarry dump. This breached the conditions laid down when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) extended its dumping licence three years ago.

EPA director Dr Mary Kelly told the programme the agency was prosecuting the council but it was only taking it to the district court where the maximum penalty is just €3,000.

Prime Time also revealed how Greyhound Waste, the company contracted to handle the EPA’s own waste, regularly dumped in a Cavan landfill site instead of recycling, and was caught three times, in Belgium, Britain and the North, shifting mixed waste when its documentation stated it was carrying recyclable paper and packaging.

Consultant Dr Peter Bacon said Ireland was producing three million tonnes of waste per year but only had capacity to dispose of two million. The programme showed that the rest was going into illegal landfills in the North, and to countries like China and Asia where environmental regulation was lax.

Mr Roche said he was “uncomfortable” with this export trade in Irish waste but refused to criticise Justice Minister Michael McDowell for opposing incinerator plans in his Dublin constituency to help deal with the problem locally.