The future of one of the last remaining examples of urban bogland in Cork is to be decided by the Environmental Protection Agency within the next two weeks.
The EPA has already granted a draft licence to a Cork firm of demolition contractors for the dumping of rubble and earth in the bog at Lotamore near Cork city. But local people who have been campaigning since 1998 for its preservation say only the agency now stands between the loss of valuable local heritage and the contractors.
The 2.5-acre tract of bog dates from the Ice Age, according to the Lotamore Lake nature reserve campaign, and contains a miniature wildlife habitat in a unique natural setting minutes from the city centre. The applicant for the licence, Mr David McSweeney of McSweeney Demolition of Pope's Quay, Cork, wants to fill in the site, cover it with top soil and grass it. That would destroy the amenity, the campaigners say, but there are also fears about what might follow from the granting of a full licence. Mr McSweeney was not available for comment.
Lotamore lies between the built-up area of Mayfield and the rapidly developing adjoining villages of Glanmire and Riverstown to the east of the city. For planning purposes, they are nowadays considered to be one of Cork's satellite towns. In Cork County Council's own words, it forms part of the green belt which keeps the city and its satellite separate. The land, however, has been given no special-amenity designation in the council's development plan in which its potential use is described as agricultural.
According to a consultant's report prepared for the applicant, the site has a capacity of approximately 42,000 tonnes. As the average infill rate would be 14,000 tonnes per year, the site would be full within three years. The estimated filling rate per day would vary from very low figures to a high of 30 loads at 16 tonnes per load.
The report supported the application in general but referred to the danger that demolition waste, highly variable by nature, could contain paint, wall coatings and old roofing material, with the potential to contaminate the groundwater resource.
It seems clear from the EPA's decision to grant a draft licence that a full licence will also be granted, but that it will contain stringent requirements to deal with the possibility of leachate harming the groundwater supply. The applicant will have to line the dump site to prevent run-off into the aquifer below.
The applicant will also have to adhere to a strict monitoring regime, and the licence will allow only for inert, non-biodegradable material to be dumped there.
The campaign group has documented evidence that before the initial licence was granted in 1998, there was unlicensed dumping at the site.
Indeed, the council wrote to Mr McSweeney in 1997 warning that without a licence any activity at the site was illegal. This was after an inspector visited the site and forced a JCB operator who was removing topsoil to stop.
The council, nevertheless, went on to grant Mr McSweeney planning permission for infill, and An Bord Pleanala upheld this decision after an appeal by the campaign group.
In a last-ditch effort to dissuade the EPA from granting a full licence, the campaign group has now raised the issue with the European Commission. A Commission official who has been in touch with the group has asked for evidence of illegal dumping before planning permission, and this will be supplied.
Whether or not it will have a bearing on the issuing of the EPA licence is another matter. One of the objectors includes the proprietor of the Barn Restaurant which has been operating nearby for more than 20 years.
A hydrological survey of the site has been conducted by the campaign group's own consultants, who found that a detailed hydrogeological, hydrological and geotechnical investigation of the site is required, to establish conditions there but that such a survey has not been carried out.
The consultants further observed: "The hydrological regime has been detrimentally affected by unlicensed dumping. However, the remaining relatively intact area remains as wetland nonetheless.
"It is a weak argument that because much of the bog has already been damaged, therefore the remainder is somehow less valuable. Attention is drawn to the experience at Clara Bog, Co Offaly, where there has been a successful ongoing reinstatement of the bog."
Local people are also concerned that water from the wetland drains into the Glen river in nearby Blackpool and then into the Lee.
The EPA will make a decision on a full licence within the next few weeks. While the agency will not discuss the details of a live licence application, it will take cognisance of the view of both Cork County Council and An Bord Pleanala that Lotamore Bog, or what remains of it, is not an area of special ecological value. The campaign group thinks otherwise and cites activity there of badgers, foxes, rabbits, herons and other bird life as well as the presence of wild plants particular to bogs. Any cluster of wildlife in an urban setting, especially an urban bog, should be cherished, the group says.
In three years the site will be exhausted. At that stage the Lotamore Lake nature reserve campaign fears the intention will be to seek planning for housing or commercial activity in an already densely populated part of the city.