The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has begun legal proceedings against the firm responsible for the green bin service provided to Dublin households, over the operation of a major waste facility.
Oxigen Environmental Ltd has been accused by the EPA of a series of breaches of its waste management licence for a transfer station at Robinhood Industrial Estate in Walkinstown.
The proceedings could result in a prosecution of Oxigen through the District Court, although the EPA has declined to say what legal route it intends to take.
The firm operates the green bin collection service for the greater Dublin area as part of a public/private partnership with the four Dublin local authorities, which is one of the single biggest waste management contracts in the State.
It also operates its own private commercial waste collection and disposal service in the Dublin area, centred around its waste transfer station at Robinhood Industrial Estate.
The Robinhood facility is licensed to process up to 25,000 tonnes of commercial waste annually, separating materials suitable for recycling and sending the remainder for landfill.
The agency has also refused to allow Oxigen to increase the amount of waste processing activity at the site, citing fears about the potential for environmental pollution because of ongoing failures to comply with the current licence.
The breaches include failing to keep proper records, using facilities not agreed with the EPA and lack of infrastructure required under the licence.
The breaches were found by EPA inspectors, who carried out three on-site inspections of the facility in the first three months of this year.
A spokeswoman for the EPA told The Irish Times that, as a result of the inspections, the agency issued non-compliance notices to Oxigen on February 10th and 12th. The notices related to four areas of non-compliance: incomplete records of waste; infrastructure not installed as required by the licence; failure to comply with facility operations requirements and the carrying on of waste activities not covered by the licence.
"The EPA has initiated legal proceedings. Unfortunately, we must be very careful not to prejudice any further case and thus cannot discuss the legal proceedings any further," she said.
The EPA has the power to bring prosecutions to the District Court against firms who breach waste management licences.
Mr Peter McLoughlin, managing director of Oxigen Environmental, said yesterday that the non-compliances had arisen because of a major upgrading of the Robinhood facilities, which was continuing. There had been "quite considerable construction work" at the site in recent months.
All waste management activity had now ceased at the site "pending completion of the building work", Mr McLoughlin said, and the company would be applying for a revised licence from the EPA to cover an expansion in its operations at the plant. This would include an increase in the amount of waste passing through the transfer station and in the recycling activity there.
However, the EPA turned down such an application in February. Its refusal stated that the level of non-compliance with the licence conditions indicated that there was a danger that such non-compliance would cause significant environmental pollution. The agency also cited concerns that Oxigen did not have staff with adequate technical knowledge to carry out or manage the expanded activities. Nor would it be able to ensure that it would not cause environmental damage.