Resistance to Superdump in Mayo/Roscommon

national | miscellaneous | news report Thursday June 20, 2002 22:44 by Jessamine

Last night, over 50 people met in a local hotel in Ballaghaderreen, to talk about the plans to build a massive “superdump” in the area. While the government hasn’t named it’s site yet –claiming it hasn’t chosen one, conveniently making the task of opposing it more difficult- it is known to be somewhere between Carracastle and Ballaghaderreen.

The huge scale of the dump is hard to imagine in this rural (but populated) area:
The site itself will be 70 hectares, or 172.97 acres, and will be filled by a stream of ten-tonne trucks, roaring their way through the countryside and the local towns at a rate of 14,204 trucks a year, or 70 a day.
The intended substances that’ll be coming our way, are 735 lorryloads of “thermal treatment residue” (the dioxin-laden leftovers from the incineration of god-knows-what); 7,294 lorries of “mixed industrial waste”; and 3,920 of builders rubble, as well as all the household refuse from the entire Connaught region.

The minimum estimated dioxin content rolling into the dump, is 14.8 pounds a year. There has been a lot of detailed study done on dioxins, and the most striking thing for me is that it is a cumulative poison, that is stored in bodyfat, and passed on to our children. It causes congenital fetal abnormalities, and a 4-year study carried out in Trinity College recently showed a significant increase in chromosomal abnormalities in people living within 7.2 kilometres of dumps, with a 40% higher risk of Down’s syndrome in those areas. Dioxin levels actually increase over time, instead of breaking down, and contaminate the air, water and soil (and therefore also our food).

This “superdump” is the result of the Connaught Waste Management Plan, which is now being enforced by the County Manager. It seems unbelievable to people who still think we live in a democracy here, but the Plan has been imposed on the region, even after the local county councils refused to ratify it over a year ago: Noel Dempsey TD –displeased with the councilors rejection of the hugely unpopular proposal for an incinerator and/or superdump- created the Connaught Waste (Amendment) Act 2001, which took the decision out of the council’s hands. The County Manager now has sole responsibility for implementing government policy regarding this Plan, and it’s full steam ahead. The Plan advocates a regional –rather than local- approach to waste, and has to make the whole area of rubbish disposal commercially viable, which is why a huge privately owned centralized dump is being developed. It’s likely that “National Toll Roads”, a priva y, will apply for the license, and further pursue their monopoly. The dump will of course be run as a business, with no input from, or benefit to, local people living in Carracastle or Ballaghaderreen. As an elderly man asked yesterday, “do they not know people live there?” It obviously doesn’t matter, as there’s money to be made. Under EU law, the state cannot subsidize the building of landfills, so although the majority of the dump will be filled with non-domestic waste, householders (who have opposed its development consistently) will be paying for it through their bin charges. Despite the fact that nobody living in the area wants a superdump, they have no choice.

Already the government has paid millions of euros (of taxpayers money) to “MC O’Sullivan & Co” to draw up the Plan, and once it’s up and running, the profits will be funneled to the private thermal waste companies like “Celtic Waste” and notorious American polluters “Waste Management Inc.” and the “Life Energy Corporation” (which has Albert Reynolds as its ‘honorary chairman’!)

What can be done about it??

If you are in the area, or can offer assistance in any way, get in touch, get involved. The plan will have to be fought legally, and locally.
Despite the Freedom of Information Act, it’ll cost you 40euros for a copy of the Waste Management Plan; and the powers that be are not giving us any specifics about the proposed site location, or dates for construction, which makes it hard to start opposing it. However as soon as they apply for planning permission (from either Mayo or Roscommon County Council), that’ll have to be appealed against. As will their application to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). Interestingly, having two separate bodies adjudicating over the same issue is a breach of European law, but that’s not likely to stop them!

*NO SUPERDUMP*NO INCINERATION*NOSUPERDUMP*NO INCINERATION*