Almost two years after an application was first lodged, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) granted a licence to Clare County Council to establish a waste management facility 2km from the village of Inagh.
However, the Inagh Anti-Landfill Group said it will take legal proceedings to stop the landfill going ahead. The residents have two months to apply for a judicial review.
The council's director of service for the environment, Mr David Timlin, welcomed the EPA's decision and said he expected construction of the £2.8 million facility to begin in early autumn. He said he hoped it would be ready by summer 2002.
The facility will have the capacity to receive 62,500 tonnes of waste a year and will cover 150 acres of forest land - 100 acres will be used as a buffer zone for the landfill.
The EPA announced the closure of the county's only other landfill site at Doora last September. The site will close by the end of this month and the county's waste will be sent to landfills in Tipperary and Limerick until the site at Inagh is open.
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