Plans for airtight unit at waste depot in Cork City

Waste firm Country Clean has outlined plans to develop an airtight storage facility at its contentious waste depot on the northside of Cork City.

The company, which was fined €12,000 at Cork District Court in January for multiple breaches of the waste licence at the Churchfield depot last year, also plans to conduct daily odour tests around the facility.

The details are contained in a letter it has distributed to local residents in recent days as it continues efforts to minimise nuisance.

The company again expressed regret about last summer’s odour complaints.

“This was deeply regrettable, as we have been operating in this location for over 10 years without causing any offence to residents ,” it said.

“Please be aware that we have, and are continuously improving work on-site to make sure our facility does not have any negative impact on local residents.”

The company outlined a range of improvement works which the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said it needed to undertake, including the construction of an airtight shed with a negative air pressure system to manage, contain and treat odours. Work is expected to take place over the next six months. The company said it is confident this will “resolve any potential odour problems”.

It said it plans to carry out its own daily odour tests and it supplied phone numbers for senior company figures should residents have any further complaints.

Meanwhile, the company confirmed it has made a submission to Cork County Council after it sought expressions of interest from the waste sector about uses for the mothballed Bottlehill superdump in north Cork.

The EPA brought a prosecution against Country Clean Recycling last January for six breaches of the licence for its waste transfer station at Churchfield industrial estate, John F Connolly Rd, Cork, between May and August last. The company pleaded guilty. The EPA said infrastructural deficiencies and poor management resulted in the production of nuisance odours, which were likened to the smell of vomit.

Country Clean told the court it had invested some €150,000 on significant infrastructural remediation of the site in recent months, and that almost another €1m will be spent on site improvements, including the construction of the airtight self-contained building which will facilitate the processing of waste material.