Plans by Greenstar, the waste management company, to build a landfill in east Galway will meet an "urgent need" for waste capacity in the south Connacht area, a Bord Pleanála hearing was told yesterday, reports Lorna Siggins from Oranmore.
Mr Eamonn Waldron, managing director of Tobin Consulting Engineers, told the hearing that south Connacht was identified as a priority in the Connacht Waste Management Plan. The proposed site for a private landfill at Killaghmore, between Kilconnell and New Inn, met all the selection criteria under both the waste management plan and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requirements, and met all EU directives, he said.
Mr Waldron was representing Greenstar, a subsidiary of National Toll Roads, at the opening day of the oral hearing. Both Greenstar, local residents and An Taisce are among the appellants in relation to planning permission granted for the private landfill last year by Galway County Council.
The residents, An Taisce and the Clarenbridge Oyster Co-op are opposed to the project, while Greenstar is seeking to have several of the conditions attached to planning relaxed, including a stipulated limit of 70,000 tonnes of waste which it wishes to expand to 100,000 tonnes. The private landfill will be located only four miles away from the proposed public landfill identified for south Connacht under the province's waste management plan.
Mr Waldron said that the low population density and potential for access were some of the significant criteria influencing the site selection. The area had no special zonings, and there was capacity for "screening" to reduce the visual impact. The landfill "footprint" on the 60-hectare site would comprise 15 hectares, he said, and would be within 500 metres of five houses and within a kilometre of a further 13 houses.
The company proposed to improve access roads, construct weighbridges, and install a leachate collection and management system and a gas extraction and flaring system, Mr Waldron said. Trucks would not be allowed to pass through the villages of New Inn and Kilconnell, and all peat removed on site would be temporarily stored and reused.
A basal lining system and collection and treatment of leachate would ensure there was no groundwater pollution, he said. The landfill would also give local employment, allow for improved road access and the company would be happy to fund local environmental improvement projects.
Speaking on behalf of the Kilconnell, New Inn and Cappataggle Anti-Superdump Committee, Mr David Malone of Environmental Action Alliance-Ireland said that the planning application for the landfill failed to comply with several European directives listed in the 1996 Waste Management Act. He also maintained that Galway County Council had failed to comply with section 34 (2) (a) of the Local Government (Planning and Development) Regulations 2000 and with the objective of the waste management plan when granting permission on October 29th last.
Mr Tom Finn, spokesman for the Kilconnell, New Inn and Cappataggle Anti-Super Dump Group, said that the community had been split by the proposal, and there was anger over the way in which some landowners were "hoodwinked" by Celtic Waste/Greenstar into selling property for the landfill.
The hearing continues today.