Local opposition to £16m waste plant at Ballyogan

Plans for a £16 million waste treatment plant on the former Ballyogan tip-head in south Co Dublin have run into opposition from local residents.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is considering an application from Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council for the plant, which includes a waste bailing station, a "bring centre" for recycling a number of different materials and a composting centre to deal with organic matter.

The council says it needs the facility to implement the Dublin Regional Waste Management Plan, which it claims cannot function without the Ballyogan development.

However, local residents say they have endured the presence of high voltage electricity in the Carrickmines sub-station, the prospect of the Southern Cross Motorway bisecting their community and were looking forward to the closure of the existing dump in 2000.

"Apart from the facility itself, we are to endure its servicing by 40-tonne lorries. With the volume of waste envisaged this amounts to 154 lorries per day. Then there are the bin lorries, the smaller trucks and the cars visiting the bring centres," said Ms Nicola Curry, a spokeswoman for a local group formed to oppose the EPA application.

Ms Curry claims that as the waste is to be strictly segregated, all that will be left to be bailed for landfill "is the bleach, polishes, paints and oven cleaners which are classed as mildly toxic waste".

"These canisters explode. They are to be bailed under huge pressure and there is a subsequent fire hazard. Add to this the fact that methane is being extracted from the ground because the wet waste in the old dump is rotting and you have serious potential for a fire risk," she added.

However, the council's senior administrative officer in charge of the environment and parks department, Mr Eugene Veasey, says that what is planned is "a lot better than the existing landfill".

"The waste brought here will be recycled in the recycling plant and what is not recycled will be bailed and taken on to the landfill at Kill, Co Kildare. It will happen indoors and the area will be managed very much like an industrial park. You will see the lorries going in but there will be very little impact on the neighbouring environment," said Mr Veasey.

While he was uncertain as to the number of lorries which would use the plant daily, Mr Veasey said numbers such as 150 would include the council's own bin lorries making trips as well as the lorries transferring bailed waste to Kill.

Regarding safety, Mr Veasey said the bailing would not take place if there was a risk of explosion or fire.

"We are satisfied that the safety aspects would have to be fully considered by the EPA and these have been gone into very thoroughly. It boils down to the fact that a recycling station is a whole lot better than a landfill and we have taken the residents to see similar bailing operations at Ballymount and we will continue to consult them on the whole project," he added.

The EPA is currently considering submissions from the public on the plan and following this a decision on the licence application will be announced.