One of many long running battles by rural communities against the location of landfill sites or so-called "superdumps" in their localities is about to flare up again in a quiet area close to Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary, and locals predict it will be a long fight.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is about to reconsider an application by Tipperary South Riding County Council for a waste management licence for a site at Hardbog, Grangemockler, after the High Court struck down the original licence. This followed a judicial review application by a local resident late last year.
A major objection to the plan is that the landfill site would, if approved, be only 1,200 metres from a residential centre for 22 adults with intellectual disabilities, the Grangemockler Camphill Community.
Mr Josef Teppan, of the Camphill Community, secured the backing of the National Association for the Mentally Handicapped when he put a motion before its a.g.m. in Kilkenny recently, asking that the needs of this "very special" community be considered.
Mr Teppan said it was a "very daunting prospect" for the small community he represented to "move into the future with a superdump next door". Fifty people live at the Camphill centre, which provides, according to Mr Teppan, a "very positive and safe environment where everybody knows everybody else" and where the residents are free to walk around the countryside. The quality of life for residents would be "seriously affected" by a landfill site, he said.
The original licence issued by the EPA was struck down by the High Court last December, but the court also ordered that the EPA reconsider the licence application and seek new submissions from all parties.
The judicial review, sought by Ms Elizabeth Murray, of the Grangemockler Environmental Group, claimed among other things that, in granting the licence, the EPA acted ultra vires and materially changed the extent of the site and the nature of the facility. The requirement that a 100-metre "buffer zone" be placed around the dump also meant that the council would encroach on lands it did not own.
The EPA did not contest the application. A spokeswoman for the EPA said it would consider all submissions sent to it in relation to the waste management licence. Submissions must be made by June 22nd.
A new environmental assessment must be carried out by the council to take the proposed buffer zone into account, the EPA has stated.
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