Clinical hospital waste found at municipal dump in Waterford

Clinical hospital waste has been discovered on a municipal dump at Kilbarry in Waterford city, The Irish Times has learned.

The waste, which has been photographed by members of the Waterford Environmental Action Committee, includes colostomy bags, tubing, swabs, petrie dishes and sample bottles.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has confirmed that it has seen the photographs which depict clinical waste in bags clearly marked "bio-hazard". While hospital waste has been found to be illegally dumped in the recent past, the Waterford find represents the first discovery of hospital waste dumped in a municipal landfill.

The photographs were taken earlier this year by members of the Waterford Environmental Action Committee as part of their unsuccessful submission against the licensing of the dump by the EPA.

According to a spokesman for the committee they represent just one part of their case which argues that hazardous builders' rubble containing asbestos dust and the carcasses of dead animals were among the refuse dumped at Kilbarry in recent years.

The spokesman said the hospital from which the waste originated had been identified but not informed as the committee felt going to the EPA was the appropriate approach.

The EPA granted a licence for the dump to Waterford Corporation last August, and confirmed it in October after an appeal by local residents and members of the environmental action committee.

A spokesman said the licence recognised that the dump was there and was designed to regulate its use in the future. The spokesman said the dump was operating for many years before the Waste Management Act 1996 and he accepted there may have been an issue of dumping hospital waste "historically".

With regard to remedying the site, the EPA spokesman said the issue of how the site was brought up to standard was a matter for the licensee, in this case Waterford Corporation.

Mr Michael Walsh of Waterford Corporation's environment section told The Irish Times that while he was vaguely aware of "an historical problem" with hospital waste being dumped in Waterford, he did not think it was on-going. The corporation had a member of staff on site to ensure hazardous waste would not be accepted from anybody, he maintained.

He said the landfill had been in operation for more than 30 years and held a substantial amount of waste.

The contamination, if any, would represent just a small part of that.

He said the corporation had investigated complaints about the presence of asbestos waste resulting from local demolition but it had been discovered that the contractor was taking the asbestos to an approved facility other than the Kilbarry dump.

Efforts to contact a spokesperson for the hospital involved were unsuccessful yesterday.