`There is a great fear out there, a fear of the unknown. Everyone is suffering from a lack of knowledge. That's why communities are so upset." The words of the Galway Fine Gael TD, Cllr Paul Connaughton, about an issue facing five western local authorities over the next few months.
The issue is waste and what to do with it. "A jigsaw" is how Mr Connaughton describes the situation, with much confused talk about incineration and landfill. This coming Friday, we should all be a little clearer when up to five sites are earmarked for a possible thermal treatment plant in the Galway area, with an option for a second plant in the Sligo/north Mayo region.
If constructed, the Galway plant may serve all five counties as part of a waste management strategy for the province. This strategy involves several methods of coping with growing waste problems, including landfill, recycling, reducing rubbish and adopting the "polluter pays" principle.
Landfill has already proved controversial, with opposition signs posted for months now in and around the three areas identified for Galway's waste. The interim use of Poolboy in Ballinasloe as a "superdump" was a contentious subject in last June's local elections.
In fact, Galway county councillors postponed a decision on a new landfill location until they had all the details of the Connacht strategy before them - principally, where a thermal treatment plant is to be built.
Mr Connaughton is critical of the term thermal treatment - "as far as we understand it, it is incineration," he says. The Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, referred to an incinerator in the local press last week.
However, consultants M.C. O'Sullivan, who have been employed by a number of counties to identify waste management strategies, are anxious to stress that incineration is only one form of thermal treatment, and that thermal treatment has made rapid technological advances.
Thermal treatment includes the more traditional methods of waste to energy, such as incineration with energy recovery; and non-incineration technologies such as pyrolysis, gasification and liquefaction. In all cases, incineration has to comply with more strict requirements on emissions, set by the EU. Incineration involves two alternative systems - grate combustion, which allows waste to be dried out before burning, and fluidised bed incineration, by which waste moves on a sand bed fluidised by blowing air through it.
Pyrolysis is described as a "thermal pre-treatment method", which transforms waste into gas, liquid and char fraction and is generally followed by combustion. Gasification is similar to pyrolysis; the pre-treated waste is fed into a reactor, and some 90 per cent by weight of the waste is transformed into gases and liquids, through the use of a gasifying agent at temperatures of 800 to 1,100 degrees Celsius or higher.
The consultants, who suggest that a site should be in the east or north of Galway city, note that there is very little reliable scientific information on the health impact of thermal treatment - principally, the effect of dioxin, furan, lead and mercury emissions. An Taisce is not against thermal treatment per se, but has urged that there be close examination and consultation before a final decision. It is argued that incineration encourages production of waste because such plants require a certain volume before they can be made viable.
To arm themselves with more information, groups of councillors are travelling abroad to see what methods are used elsewhere. The Galway councillors are expected to travel to Germany in several weeks' time. In the meantime, Galway's waste management plan has gone on display in the city, and county councillors will be asked to approve an exhibition in the county area next Friday.
Of the five counties in the province - Galway, Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim and Roscommon - only Roscommon has been presented with the complete Connacht plan. In all cases, there must be two months of public consultation, so no big decisions are expected before next year.
