Republican News · Thursday 6 March 2003

Shock at Indaver incinerator decision

BY ROBBIE SMYTH

ger, shock and fear were just some of the reactions to the decision this week by An Bord Pleanála to grant planning permission for Ireland's first municipal waste incinerator in Carranstown, near Duleek, County Meath.

Apart from the fact that incineration flies in the face of any real environmental waste management strategy, there was disbelief across political parties and local environmental and community organisations that the planning permission had been granted.

More than 26,000 people signed a petition against the §85 million plant, which can burn up to 170,000 tonnes of waste annually. 4,500 individual objections were submitted to An Bord Pleanála. Just weeks ago, it was revealed that a similar incinerator in Antwerp run by Indaver, which will build and run the Irish plant, has been closed since August because it failed consistently to show it could control dioxin emissions.

The experience at Indaver's Antwerp plant is raising huge concern in Ireland. The plant was closed after failing its annual dioxin emission test. Emissions from the plant had been shown to be 280 times above the standard limit and the Flemish Inspections Service believed that the plant may have been breaching dioxins emission limits for some time.

When Indaver restarted the plant in January, dioxin emissions were still nine times in excess of permitted limits. There is, then, a very serious concern about how Indaver's Irish plants will operate on a day-to-day basis and crucially, how will the public know they are not breaching safety standards.

Also ignored by An Bord Pleanála was a report published just last week by the Health Research Board, which concludes that the 26 Counties "has insufficient resources to carry out adequate risk assessments for proposed waste management facilities".

What An Bord Pleanála did reject in its decision was the proposed community recycling park, because the proposed park would attract "unnecessary car-borne traffic".

Sinn Féin TD for Louth, Arthur Morgan, expressed his shock today at the incinerator decision. Morgan said: "An Bord Pleanála are on the one hand concerned about car traffic but have ignored the deep concerns of residents in Louth, Meath and North Dublin. These communities all have legitimate health fears about the incinerator project.

Morgan also highlighted health concerns ignored in the recently published report on Health and Environmental Effects of Landfilling and Incineration of Waste. The study acknowledged "associations between developing certain cancers and living close to incinerator sites".

The government response to these concerns came from Environment minister Martin Cullen, who made the amazing pronouncement that "no waste option, not even recycling, is risk free".

Indaver needs an operating licence from the Environmental Protection Agency, which has already licensed nine incinerators for industry. Arthur Morgan said that, "given the Antwerp experience and the report from the Health Services Board, there are serious concerns that not only will Indaver be unable to run the plant within allowed emission limits but also that we will not actually know when they are breaching permitted dioxin levels.

"It is glib of the minister to talk about no strategy being risk free. It is of no comfort to the communities in Meath and Louth who will be now be worrying about a daily cancer threat in their local community."

Morgan told An Phoblacht that he was writing to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) director general, Mary Kelly, to ask her how she proposes to monitor municipal incinerators to ensure that they are operating within legal emission limits.

Morgan has serious concerns about the current quality of compliance of industrial incinerators that have been issued Integrated Pollution Control licences by the EPA. He said that "the EPA's own inspections found that in 2000, of 46 facilities visited, only ten were fully compliant with the terms of their licences. Twenty three were found to have significant breaches of their licences. No hazardous waste facilities were found to be non-compliant but I still have serious concerns about how the EPA will monitor what could be up to seven regional incinerators."

Morgan also highlighted the environmental failures in the incinerator decision. He said, "An Bord Pleanála failed to appreciate that this development is premature because it has not allowed a reasonable time for an effective recycling programme to be developed in the North East.

"We need to do everything we can to support the communities in around Carranstown in any further avenues or appeals that they take and I urgently call on the minister for Environment and Local Government to reconsider not just the Indaver project but the whole incinerator agenda. There is still time to put all our collective will into developing a real waste management strategy that is grounded in reuse, reduction and recycling."