Minister prepared to meet incinerator company

A POTENTIAL compromise in the long-standing row over the proposed Poolbeg incinerator was signalled yesterday.

Minister for the Environment John Gormley said he was prepared “to sit down” with Covanta, Dublin City Council’s partner in the project, and discuss a solution.

He said: “I think thermal treatment – and I have always said this – is part of the mix.

“If people are sensible and sit down and say how do we advance waste management in this country . . .

“I am more than happy to sit down with the principals of this scheme and ask what it is that we can do here.”

The Minister said an avenue for discussion would be whether there was scope to build an SRF (solid recovered fuel) plant. SRF is derived from “black bin” waste after intensive recycling and removal of non-combustible and hazardous wastes.

He said discussions were already under way with the ESB regarding the use of SRF as a fuel in Moneypoint power station. Discussions were also under way with the cement industry, he said.

Mr Gormley warned, however, he would not be “brow beaten or intimidated by anyone” in relation to the State’s waste policy.

He said the contract between Dublin City Council and Covanta would “have to be renegotiated”.

Speaking on Today with Pat Kennyon RTÉ radio, the Minister said he had asked Dublin City Council not to sign the contract with Covanta in 2007, as a new Government was taking office and on the basis the Government waste policy was changing.

Subsequently, the High Court ruled that the council did not control the waste collected by private contractors.

This meant the council could not now direct 320,000 tonnes of waste per year be sent to the proposed incinerator, which was the minimum the city needed before it paid a financial penalty under its contract with Covanta.

But Mr Gormley said it was proposed to go ahead anyway and build a 600,000 tonne-a-year facility when the city “can’t possibly supply 320,000 tonnes”.

Asked if the Minister’s offer to open discussions represented an “olive branch”, a spokesman for Mr Gormley said “the Minister has long extended a leafy and well-nurtured olive branch on this”.

He said the council was in a difficult position, but it was position of its own making.

A spokesman for the council said it could not comment on the Minister’s remarks yesterday.

Under the joint venture between multinational energy company Covanta and the council, the Poolbeg incinerator would use municipal waste as fuel to generate electricity and provide water-based heating for in excess of 50,000 households.

Pipes have already been laid across the mouth of the Liffey in anticipation of a district heating scheme in the docklands.

The council’s aim is to recycle 59 per cent of the city’s municipal waste before incinerating about 25 per cent of it, leaving 16 per cent as an inert residual.