The High Court has rejected an attempt by the Environmental Protection Agency to restrain the use of a dump near the Pollards town Fen, Co Kildare, where wetlands of international importance are located.
The EPA sought an interlocutory injunction to prevent further dumping until the final determination of legal proceedings brought against the owners of the dump site or until there is a decision on whether to grant a licence for dumping there.
The action was taken against Mr Michael Munnelly, the registered owner of the dump site at Pollardstown, The Curragh, and his son, Padraig.
Ms Nuala Butler for the EPA told Mr Justice Kelly it was a most unusual application under the Waste Management Act, 1996. Under that Act, the EPA was the licensing authority in regard to dumping. The dump at Pollards town was not licensed, but the owners had applied for one after the EPA had instituted proceedings against them.
Ms Butler said the agency was concerned that until the final determination of the court proceedings or the granting of the licence, matters would not be made worse in the intervening period.
In an affidavit, Mr Brendan Wall, an EPA inspector, said that last June the agency became aware that a disused gravel pit at Pollardstown and adjacent to the fen was being used for unauthorised dumping of waste.
Mr Eugene Daly, president of the Irish branch of the International Association of Hydrologists, said in an affidavit that a comparison between water tests carried out on a spring-feeding in the fen in 1980 and in 1999 showed the water quality remained constant. There was no evidence of polluting matter entering the fen from the direction of the dump site, he said.
Mr Justice Kelly said the only evidence regarding water quality was that of Mr Daly, which had not been countered by evidence from the EPA.