An Bord Pleanála's decision to approve Indaver's plans for a waste incinerator in Co Meath is a significant landmark, writes Frank McDonald, EnvironmentEditorAnalysis
NO waste-management option, not even recycling, is risk-free, the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, said following publication last month of a report by the Health Research Board (HRB) on the public health and environmental effects of landfill and incineration.
The HRB report was inconclusive on the link between cancer and proximity to a waste incinerator, though it did find that emissions might cause respiratory problems and also "modest evidence" for a link between birth defects and residence near some landfill sites.
But it was the Labour Party's environment spokesman, Mr Éamon Gilmore TD, who correctly identified as most significant HRB's conclusion that Ireland "has insufficient resources to carry out adequate risk assessments for proposed waste-management facilities".
He said: "What this means is that the Government is now proceeding with plans to build five incinerators and with plans for several super dumps and that it does not know what are the health risks associated with these facilities . . . the Irish authorities haven't a clue."
CHASE (Cork Harbour Area for a Safe Environment) said the HRB's failure to reach a conclusion on safety was "a clear message" that the precautionary principle should be observed - "that incinerators must not be built in the absence of data to show the technology is safe".
Nevertheless, Mr Cullen said he would be "going forward" to develop a range of modern waste-management infrastructure , "including a limited number of state-of- the-art thermal treatment facilities and residual landfills, licensed to the most up-to-date and stringent standards".
CHASE, in common with other campaigners against incineration, remains dubious about the Minister's faith in "state-of-the- art thermal treatment facilities" when some incinerators - including one operated by the Belgian company, Indaver - breach emissions limits.
Indaver, the company behind the municipal waste incinerator planned for Carranstown, Co Meath, and a national hazardous waste incinerator at Ringaskiddy, in Cork Harbour, was forced to close down its static kiln facility in Antwerp twice in the past six months.
On August 14th last, Indaver shut the static kiln after a once-a-year measuring for dioxins showed emission levels 280 times higher than the standard limit. According to the Flemish environmental inspection service, it could have exceeding the limit for some time.
The facility was closed down most recently on January 23rd by the environmental inspection service after it discovered that dioxin levels were still between five and nine times in excess of the permitted emissions limits and the company was told to "re-do its homework".
According to Mr Tom Prendeville, waste campaigner with Friends of the Earth Ireland, the problem was caused by "a state-of-the-art new burner that wasn't capable of dealing with PCBs" (polychlorinated biphenyls). An additional dioxin filter is to be installed at the plant.
The Green Party environment spokesman, Mr Ciarán Cuffe TD, said these incidents "cast doubts on Indaver's ability to operate an incinerator within safety limits" and raised wider questions about whether this waste technology is "capable of flawless day-to-day operation".
Mr Cuffe has also accused the Government of "promoting incineration by the back door" with its Protection of the Environment Bill, under which local councillors would permanently lose their power to make waste-management plans. Instead, it would be an executive function.
Though Indaver now has planning permission for its incinerator at Carranstown - subject, of course, to any judicial review by objectors - it is still waiting on a decision by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on its application for a licence for this waste facility.
The EPA's director general, Dr Mary Kelly, has said it approaches each application with an open mind, although "personally, I would prefer to live beside an incinerator than a landfill site. But we have got to make sure if we do licence them that they work without a glitch".
Dr Kelly pointed out that the EPA had already licensed nine or 10 incinerators for industry "and they're all working away quietly in the background under very strict regulation from us. So that in itself is an endorsement of incineration as a valid technology".
Waste incineration was "such an emotive issue" that scientific evidence alone would not dispel public fears. "Really, what needs to happen for people to believe in it to to have a fully functioning incinerator that isn't causing any problems," she said.
In that context, An Bord Pleanála's decision to approve Indaver's plans for Carranstown may be regarded as a significant landmark. It will now be up to the Belgian company's Irish subsidiary to demonstrate conclusively that public fears about incineration are unwarranted.