Wasting €4,000 on pollution fine

South-East Correspondent Neans McSweeney reports on the costly business of waste management.

WATERFORD County Council says it’s regrettable that it ended up in the courts in the past few days with a €4,000 fine for failing to abide by the terms of its waste license as set down by the environmental watchdog, the Environmental Protection Agency.

It admitted failing to put in place the infrastructure needed to deal with gases from the site, thus causing a pollution threat. But as admitted in court and acknowledged by Mr Justice Michael O’Shea, the problem is simply down to a lack of finance for such works for authorities such as Waterford County Council.