Local authorities are facing multimillion-euro bills to carry out remedial works on landfills which were in operation before the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency and before waste management legislation was on the statute books.
Officials with Meath County Council said yesterday that since 1999 it has spent €10.5 million on remedial works on its former landfill at Basketstown.
It was closed in 2001 at the EPA's insistence, and senior council official Brendan McGrath warned that other local authorities face similar bills because landfills like it can be found "throughout Ireland".
If Meath is taken as representative of even half of the local authorities, then the total bill would be close to €120 million.
The 12.5-hectare site at Basketstown began as a sand-pit in the 1980s. It was issued with a waste licence by the EPA in 1999, and the council believed it would be able to continue accepting waste until 2003, but the EPA insisted it be closed at the end of 2001.
€1.5 million of the money spent so far has been on legal bills; there are a number of outstanding claims for evacuation and disturbance following an incident when above-minimum levels of carbon dioxide were detected in a house.
The council is continuing to follow the EPA guidelines on remediation works, which have included dealing with large quantities of leachate, or toxic liquid, that had been, and still is, draining through the landfill.
More than 6,000 cubic metres is collected every day, enough to cover the pitch at Croke Park to a height of four feet; the liquid includes ammonia and chloride, as well as some other chemicals.
The volume produced has reduced considerably from 16,000 cubic metres a day in 2002; all of it is taken to the Navan wastewater treatment plant.
Despite the problems associated with the landfill, the council says that surface water quality in close proximity to the site compares favourably to those in adjacent catchments.
As a precautionary measure the council provides a temporary supply to four households close to the Basketstown landfill. It is examining options to link those premises to a group scheme as a long-term response to their water requirements.
The landfill was fitted with clay liners and drainage blankets and capped with 90,000 cubic metres of subsoil that had to meet the requirements of the EPA.
The gas produced by the landfill is now connected to flares, and there is now a "comprehensive" system covering the entire site. Last year 12,000 native trees and hedgerow saplings were also planted.
Officials say that Meath is the first county council to face up to the problems left by a landfill that did not meet modern standards.
It had been hoped money from income it earned by remaining open from 2001 to 2003 could have been used to pay for the remediation works but the EPA insisted on closing it, the council said.