Closure of Cavan dump sends capital's waste to Louth, Offaly sites

SOME 25,000 tonnes of Dublin’s household waste is to be sent to landfill sites in Louth and Offaly following the closure of a Cavan dump operated by private waste company Oxigen.

The company has decided to close its operations at the landfill in Corranure, Co Cavan, four months after being awarded a contract by Dublin County Council to dispose of the capital’s household waste at the site.

Landfill operations will cease within the next month. Dublin City Council said it understands the waste will instead go to landfill sites at Whiteriver, Dundalk, Co Louth, and Derryclure in Tullamore, Co Offaly.

The decision has been taken following signals from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) it intended to refuse a licence for the operation of the Corranure site.

The city council last November awarded contracts to Oxigen and Bord na Móna, worth about €10 million, to take almost 150,000 tonnes of Dublin waste following the closure of Arthurstown, the last municipal landfill serving the region. The Arthurstown landfill, the dump used for most of Dublin’s waste, was about 4km over the county border with Kildare, but was owned and operated by South Dublin County Council.

Dublin City Council had anticipated the end of the capital’s landfill capacity for more than a decade but had envisaged that the Poolbeg incinerator would be up and running by now. Work on the incinerator began in December 2009, but has been suspended since last May.

A spokeswoman for the council yesterday said it was in discussions with its private partners, US-based waste company Covanta, in relation to restarting the project as soon as possible.

The council will need private operators to take the waste at an estimated cost of €15-20 million a year, until the Poolbeg incinerator is operational.

Bord na Móna is continuing to accept waste at the Drehid landfill in Co Kildare. However, just one month after the contract was awarded to Oxigen for the Corranure site, the EPA stated its intention to refuse a licence to the company to operate the facility.

In its proposed decision the EPA said it was not satisfied the operation of the landfill would not cause environmental pollution. The Corranure landfill had in 2009 been the subject of more than 600 complaints to the EPA in relation to foul odours.

Under its procedures, the EPA issues a proposed decision and then allows a period for objections before issuing a final decision. An EPA spokeswoman said yesterday it planned to issue its final decision next May.

In a statement yesterday, Oxigen group managing director Noel Boyle said the company regretted the withdrawal from Cavan. “Oxigen are disappointed by the decision of the EPA,” it said. “It is unfortunate that this will result in the loss of significant direct and indirect jobs.”

The EPA said it received no objection from Oxigen to its proposed decision to refuse the licence.

Dublin City Council yesterday said it understood the waste it had contracted Oxigen to take would now be going to the landfill sites in Dundalk and Tullamore. This was acceptable within the terms of its contract with Oxigen, a spokeswoman said. The contract would continue until June when new tenders would be sought.

Although Oxigen issued its statement yesterday, it would not answer further questions.