Council tells Aer Rianta to clean up dump

Aer Rianta has been told by Clare County Council to submit detailed clean-up plans for an unlicensed dump the airport authority operated at Shannon Airport over a number of years.

Last month, a previously unpublished Aer Rianta report outlined the scale of past illegal dumping at the Aer Rianta-owned Dernish Island site a short distance from the airport.

The 1995 report showed that Aer Rianta knew that the lands at the site were being polluted by hazardous waste, yet the company continued to dump waste there for a further three years.

In addition, an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report last year produced strong evidence that dumping was still going on at the site despite Aer Rianta denials.

Dumping ceased at the site last year during the EPA investigation into waste management issues at Shannon Airport, called for by An Taisce.

The EPA report arising from the investigation found that due to the absence of proper sewage treatment facilities at the airport, 100,000 cubic metres of untreated raw sewage was being pumped each year into the Shannon estuary, which is a Special Area of Conservation (SAC).

Earlier this year, Aer Rianta lodged plans for a €2.24 million sewage treatment plant in a belated bid to rectify the problem - the provision of such a plant was one of the conditions attached to the planning permission for the new €35 million terminal at Shannon.

Already, the semi-State indicated in the District Court last month that, in response to a prosecution being brought by the Shannon Regional Fisheries Board, it is to plead guilty to polluting the Shannon estuary arising from the lack of sewage treatment facilities at the airport.

The 1995 Aer Rianta report - which was made available to the council as part of Aer Rianta's application for the sewage treatment plant - recorded soil samples at the Dernish Island site having unacceptably high pollution levels with the presence of aluminium, iron and zinc.

The report related how, according to local sources, the site had been used as a dump since 1972 and described how Aer Rianta personnel would dump non-hazardous waste into an area measuring 1,660 square yards and then burn it.

However, in response to issues arising from the history of illegal dumping there, the county council has put the sewage treatment plant application on hold until Aer Rianta answers a number of questions in relation to the unlicensed dump.

The airport operator is now expected to lodge a detailed aftercare and remediation plan for the site, along with other details relating to the deposits of waste there.