Old landfill sites 'pose risk to health'

Landfill sites in Northern Ireland permitted to close without proper monitoring are presenting a serious threat to public health, it was claimed today.

Pressure group Friends of the Earth made the claim as it revealed it has made a fresh complaint to Europe about what it described as the North’s poor waste record.

It claims that the lack of aftercare plans for defunct waste sites is a clear breach of the European Landfill Directive and that in some cases the waste disposal licence has simply been filed away or binned.

The organisation said the directive was an important piece of legislation which prevents landfill sites from polluting drinking water and nearby streams and rivers.

It warned that sites which are closed without proper care could pose an environmental and health threat for decades to come.

Waste campaigner Declan Allison blamed the British Department of the Environment for allowing this situation to arise.

“It is not acceptable for landfill operators to simply lock the gates, hand in their licence and walk away. But this is precisely what the DoE has allowed them to do,” he said.

“These sites will continue to pollute the environment and damage people’s health for 30 or 40 years.”

Mr Allison appealed to the department to monitor the sites and make operators liable for any damage caused.

“DoE Environment and Heritage Service (EHS) is in chaos and is unable to answer a basic question such as how many waste disposal licences are in operation,” he added.

“This is further evidence of the need for an independent Environmental Protection Agency. Such as agency would not allow European law to be circumvented in this cavalier fashion.”

The complaint by Friends of the Earth was made on Northern Ireland’s failure to implement the European Directive on the landfilling of waste on time.

The directive should have been implemented by July 2001 but did not come into effect until January 2004.

In April, the group made a complaint on the lack of enforcement of the Waste Framework Directive.

This complaint was about the illegal landfill problem in Northern Ireland and the EHS' failure to prosecute offenders.