Concern has been expressed that the discovery of what is believed to be the biggest ever illegal dump in Donegal could be just the first of many in the county.
Donegal Co Council has confirmed it is carrying out an investigation into illegal dumping on a site near Letterkenny where it is estimated that up to 10,000 tonnes of household waste has already been deposited.
Donegal's refuse collection service was privatised in 1994, but the combination of charges - which are typically €300 per household per annum - along with fewer and fewer landfill sites is believed to be contributing to the problem of indiscriminate dumping.
More than half of the county's householders are more than 50 miles away from the two legal landfill sites, which are both in the south of the county.
Binbane, near Killybegs, is due to shut at the end of this year, while an extension is being planned for Ballynacarrick, six miles from Donegal Town.
A new modern landfill is being earmarked for Meenabol near Fintown in the centre of Donegal, but given the time-consuming nature of the environmental impact studies and public consultation process, this is unlikely to come on-stream until after 2005.
Local public representatives are becoming increasingly worried that indiscriminate dumping has now become a major problem in a number of areas, and fear that many more will now come to light.
"There is a lot of it going on, especially at night. You have people dumping black bags and fridges. I've even seen large amounts of fish dumped in a forest near Letterkenny," said local councillor Seán Maloney. "People are lazy and we are a dirty nation. Part of the solution is to have more litter wardens and for the gardaí to prosecute more people."
The Council's Waste Management Plan, which was drawn up in 2000, noted that only 74 per cent of households had their domestic waste collected.
Considerable resources have been put into providing recycling facilities and there are now 46 "bring bank" sites in the county. However, although some refuse is taken by private contractors into Northern Ireland, this amount, along with the recycling measures, does not fully account for the fall in tonnage going into the two landfills.
"There is an awful lot of illegal dumping going on," acknowledged Ms May McClintock of the local branch of An Taisce.
She believes that greater efforts must be made to prosecute those who are found to be breaking the law.