Wicklow County Council waste enforcement staff have begun a new investigation into an unlicensed landfill site that caused the redesign of a major road interchange to avoid it.
As council management faced serious criticism from councillors over the site at Kilpedder on the N11, senior staff also acknowledged that a state-of-the-art dual carriageway currently under construction was "ending in a field" because the interchange had not yet been built to link it to the N11.
The delay and major redesign of the interchange, which is also being done to provide for greater traffic capacity following planning approval for over 3,000 housing units in Greystones and Delgany, has seen costs rise from €5 million to over €20 million.
Yesterday afternoon, Wicklow county manager, Mr Eddie Sheehy, said that while it was originally believed that the site contained inert material such as soil, recent tests showed "cause for concern".
Waste enforcement staff had now launched a new investigation into the site, he said.
He told councillors that the council had been aware of dumping at the unlicensed site since the late 1980s, and took legal action in 1998 in the Circuit Court against the owners of the land.
The court order prohibited the dumping of commercial, domestic or hazardous waste, but allowed the owner to bring inert material such as soil and rock onto the site, a former gravel pit. An independent engineer's report from 2001 said that no illegal waste had been brought on site.
Because of this the council decided to proceed with a design for a road interchange to link the N11 to Greystones and Delgany, with one road cutting through the dump site, and issued compulsory purchase orders for the land.
Mr Sheehy said the project did not receive funding approval from the NRA and in the further detailed testing of the site uncovered results that gave cause for concern, and it was decided to redesign the interchange to avoid the site.
In the meantime planning approval was given for over 3,000 housing units, including a 1,500 development that the council itself opposed, which necessitated a major redesign for a much larger interchange.
The developers have constructed a dual carriageway to provide southern access to the Greystones area from the proposed interchange, which will be completed next year. The interchange will not be completed until late 2007.
Cllr Deirdre De Burca, of the Green Party, said the manager's report left "a lot of unanswered questions". She also questioned why councillors had not been informed of the latest test results when they voted to allow the site to retain its employment zoning status last month.
Cllr Margaret Kelleher, of Fianna Fáil, said the story of the interchange was "an appalling saga" which would leave thousands of extra homes in an area, but with no real road access until at least 2007.