Councils hit with fuel laundering clean-up bill

Local authorities along the border are counting the cost of the worst year yet for cleaning up toxic sludge left behind by illegal fuel laundering.

Figures from Monaghan County Council show it has dealt with 132 incidents relating to the illegal dumping of diesel wash, the sludge left behind by the fuel-laundering process.

This year’s number of incidents in the county far outstrip the total of 97 last year, which was itself the highest number of incidents with which the local authority had been forced to deal.

In Louth, the council has projected a total number of 103 incidents for the year involving the dumping of the toxic waste, with the projected figure of 731 tonnes of the sludge almost matching last year’s amount.

A spokesman for Louth County Council said three diesel-laundering plants had been raided by customs officials so far in 2013.

The clean-up operations involved will cost the local authority approximately €742,000 — less than last year’s cost but only because it signed a new tender this year with a firm that can carry out the work for a lower fee.

In Monaghan, acting senior executive engineer in the council’s environment section, Kieran Duffy, said 2013 had “easily been the most problematic to date” in relation to the illegal dumping of diesel-laundering waste or ‘diesel wash’.

“In terms of cost, we don’t have our final costs in yet for the period May to Dec 2013, but it is likely to be over the €250,000 mark, meaning that the total costs for 2013 are likely to be over the €500,000 mark.”

Monaghan County Council has estimated the total costs incurred in the county because of diesel wash between 2004 and 2013 now total €2.14m.

Mr Duffy said: “It would appear that the dramatic escalation in incidents since 2011 could be attributed to the introduction of low-sulphur diesel a few years back by Irish Government.”

Indicative figures from Revenue show that eight oil laundries have been closed down by customs officials so far this year and since 2010, 32 oil laundries have been detected and closed down, with 28 people arrested during these operations and 654,000 litres of mineral oil seized. In the same period, 2.6m litres of mineral oil have been seized in the course of delivery or at retailers’ premises.

In the past two years, two people have been convicted for oil-laundering offences. In one case, the offender was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment and in the second case, a two-year suspended sentence was imposed.

A Revenue spokesperson said: “There are currently 10 cases before the courts and a further 16 being prepared with a view to submission to the Director of Public Prosecutions.”

In the past two years, more than 100 filling stations throughout the State were closed for breaches of licensing conditions.

Both Revenue and customs officials in the North are working on finding a new ‘marker’ for detecting laundered fuel that would be used in both jurisdictions.