Objection will further delay dump decision
Hot on the heels of news that Cork City Council is set to export its waste because it is due to run out of landfill space, comes confirmation from a residents group that they are to lodge an objection against the council’s proposal to develop one the largest super dumps ever built in Ireland.
The results of an oral hearing held by the Environmental Protection Agency into licensing the facility are due in a matter of days.
However, rather than waiting for them Bottlehill Environmental Alliance (BEA) has decided to push ahead with an objection to An Bord Pleanála which will delay the facility even longer.
BEA has also indicated that it is prepared to take the matter to the courts which could then delay the process indefinitely, putting a serious dent in the local authority’s hopes of having the landfill up and running by next year.
BEA spokesman John O’Riordan said it was “worth noting” that a section of the Environmental Impact Statement submitted by the council said the landfill at Bottlehill would not accept waste from any of the adjoining regions.
“However, at the same time their partners, Cork City Council, on July 3, said they would be seeking to export some 30,000 to 40,000 tons of waste from the City .
A case of the local authorities being quite willing to export but not to import municipal waste depending on circumstances,” Mr O’Riordan said.
BEA point out the proposed site is the source of three rivers supplying public water to over 30,000 people, in an area under consideration for Special Protection Area (SPA) status, and adjacent to a Candidate Special Area of Conservation (CSAC), and a proposed Natural Heritage Area (NHA).
“Even a cursory look at the Bottlehill site would place it in a high risk category, Mr O’Riordan said.
The cost of the proposed central landfill was estimated at £9 million in 1999, at the EPA oral hearing in January 2003 Council admitted that this figure had risen to 56 million, a 500% increase.
“At the end of the day it’s not our fault that there’s a waste crisis in Cork. It’s down to the local authorities failure to implement any major recycling programme,” Mr O’Riordan said.
A spokesman for Cork County Council said it anticipated that there might be a challenge to An Bord Pleanála.
“We’re hoping they (An Bord Pleanála) will deal with it as speedily as possible given the urgency of the such infrastructure at this time to the county,” the spokesman said.
He declined to comment on the outcome of the EPA decision, which is due before July 18.
