Diesel laundering costs Louth €1m

THE cost to the taxpayer of cleaning up the toxic sludge left by diesel laundering will reach nearly €1 million for 2011 in one county alone.

Figures from Louth County Council confirm there has been a four-fold increase in the volume of the sludge being dumped around the county compared with 2010 and a 13-fold increase on 2009.

In neighbouring Co Monaghan, the council has seen “a marked increase in 2011”, when it dealt with 37 incidents of diesel wash waste dumping compared with just one in 2010.

Since 2004, Monaghan has spent about €1.5m disposing of the waste but the figure for last year will see the authorities in Louth spend €989,100.

A spokesman for Louth County Council said this equates to 989 tonnes at a cost of about €1,000 per tonne to process.

In 2009, the council was left to pick up the tab for cleaning up 72 tonnes, and in 2010 with the cost of 220 tonnes.

However, that was significantly less than last year although from early on the indications were that the problem was escalating.

Louth County Council was called to 90 incidents where containers full of the waste were dumped in 2011. One of the locations was the beach at Shelling Hill near Carlingford. It is where the remains of Jean McConville, who was abducted and murdered by the IRA in 1972, were found in 2003. Some of the containers dumped there were leaking.

A council spokesperson yesterday said: “We remain concerned about the increase in the materials being dumped and as it is a toxic waste there is a particular concern about such waste entering a water course.”

The sludge is left behind after smugglers have washed or laundered a red or green dye from diesel. The dye is a chemical marker added by the authorities that indicates it is cheaper, as it is for off-road use. However, smugglers buy it in bulk, wash it and sell it as cheap but apparently “white” auto-diesel.

A spokesperson for the Revenue Commissioners warned that “the damage to the environment that oil laundering can cause is clearly evident”.