EPA vows crackdown on cross-border dumping

The Environmental Protection Agency has vowed to crack down on illegal cross-border dumping.

The agency said today that the matter was one of the main priorities of its Environmental Enforcement Office, which was established a year ago to tackle environmental crime.

Waste from the Republic has been found in a number of illegal dumps north of the border and, in September, a joint Garda-PSNI operation led to nine truckloads of illegal waste being sent back across the border with their contents.

The EPA said co-operation between officials on both sides of the border was resulting in a more rapid response to the problem and a number of prosecutions were already pending in the North.