Louth County Council "could easily spend €100,000 a year" on properly removing and disposing of hazardous waste left behind by criminals who launder or wash smuggled diesel which they then sell at considerable profit on both sides of the Border.
When these laundering plants are raided and seized by customs officers, they frequently contain large quantities of a black oily sludge which is the by-product of the chemical process used to remove or launder the diesel so it appears to be white or bona-fides diesel; it is then sold on as such to unsuspecting motorists.
The coloured diesel - green in the Republic and red in Northern Ireland - is intended for use in off-road and agricultural vehicles and, as such, the duties due on it are less and the subsequent loss to the Exchequer and profits for the smugglers are greater.
In the most recent raid - last week at Drumcah, Iniskeen - customs officers from Dundalk, Clones and Dublin seized a plant where they found 80,000 litres of diesel at various stages of being "washed" and 12,000 litres of waste residue.
The plant had the capacity to launder 50,000 litres of oil per day. The loss of revenue could, potentially, have run into millions of euro per annum.
However, when environmental officers from Louth County Council arrived at the site, the waste could not be located. The discovery of the waste residue at these laundering plants is only a recent occurrence and Mr Joe McGuinness, senior executive officer with the council's environmental services said: "We remain concerned about where the residue was dumped previous to this; we could easily spend €100,000 a year on remedial works like this."
The waste is exported for proper disposal to mainland Europe and in the past year the council spent €32,000 on cleaning up after a large plant was uncovered near Kilcurry outside Dundalk.
In addition, the council has dealt with four incidents of dumping of the waste at different locations around the county. In one case, 20,000 litres had been left in a 1979-registered articulated lorry that was abandoned in a lay-by off the main Dundalk to Newry road.
"We believe the waste oil recovered at these locations was the result of illegal activity and we had to remove it for fear of contamination to the water courses or streams in the area," Mr McGuinness said.