An incinerator proposed for Carranstown, Co Meath, is just yards from the Boyne Valley, a designated world heritage site, the Bord Pleanála oral hearing into objections to the development heard yesterday.
It is also in conflict with the Co Meath Development Plan and the strategic planning guidelines for the greater Dublin area, the hearing was told.
The incinerator is part of a waste management facility proposed by Indaver Ireland for a 10-hectare site on the Louth/Meath border. It is also proposed that it would be a waste to energy facility, feeding 11 megawatts to the ESB national grid.
Almost two-thirds of the 24 formal objectors failed to appear yesterday morning but among those who did were No Incineration Alliance (NIA), the main group opposing the proposed incinerator, An Taisce, elected members of Drogheda Borough Council, Deputies Fergus O'Dowd (FG), John Bruton (FG) and Arthur Morgan (SF), the Louth-Meath Health Protection Group and professional golfer Des Smyth.
Meath County Council granted planning permission subject to 30 conditions last July; it allows for 150,000 tonnes of non-hazardous waste to be incinerated from the north-east region each year.
In its submission yesterday An Taisce spokesman Mr Peter Sweetman said that as An Bord Pleanála could not address environmental issues associated with the planning application there was a conflict between Ireland and the European Commission. The inspector conducting the hearing, Mr James Carroll, should refer the matter to the European Court of Justice, he said. The inspector noted this.
The hearing heard from town planner and objector Mr Stephen Ward that the proposed incineration of 150,000 tonnes a year would result in the production of 38,000 tonnes annually of bottom or residual ash, which would have to be landfilled.
Mr Ward said that Indaver Ireland had not properly examined alternative locations such as Ardee in mid-Louth, that the draft waste management plan for the north-east did not identify Carranstown as a location for such a plant and in Mr Ward's opinion the environmental impact statement accompanying the company's application was fundamentally flawed.
Councillor Shaun Lynch said the site was close to Duleek, which was the site of the earliest Christian settlement in Ireland and the first stone church in the country.
Fine Gael TD Mr Fergus O'Dowd told the inspector that the incinerator would have an adverse effect on the health of the local community as dioxins produced by incineration were human carcinogenics and Drogheda was in the direct path of the prevailing wind for any that escaped into the atmosphere.
The planning permission stipulated only waste from the north east be dealt with but Mr O'Dowd asked how that could be policed.
Local landowner Mr Thomas Carroll said that 13 acres of his land in the area had been valued at £3,283,000 and a year later, after planning permission was granted, he could not secure a single tender and was at a net loss of that amount.
The Carranstown Residents' Group said no one had adequately explained why it was the chosen location. The incinerator at Indaver's plant in Flanders was in the middle of a huge industrial estate with a nuclear power plant, petro-chemical plants and "it looked like a wasteland. Carranstown it was not!" It also claimed there would be an additional 19,000 heavy goods vehicles using the regional road R152 between Drogheda and Duleek every year to access and exit the site.
The Mayor of Drogheda, Mr Malachy Godfrey, said "we have a high rate of cancer in the north east; will dioxin emissions further contribute to that?" There were also two food-producing industries in close proximity to the incinerator and the proposal "will have a dramatic effect on the future of those companies. In turn it could cause a domino effect of factory closures and increased unemployment."
Ms Áine Walsh, the first of a series of speakers representing No Incineration Alliance, said their opposition was on health, wealth and heritage grounds. "Incinerators emit many pollutants to air, water and in solid form which have negative health effects."
The East Meath Dairy Farmers, part of the NIA group and representing a large number of adjacent dairy farmers, said they believed consumer confidence in their produce would be completely eroded by the presence of an incinerator close to their lands.
International golfer Des Smyth said he was opposed to incineration and his experience was that heavy industry companies were more interested in profit.
In the afternoon Meath County Council began its submission to the hearing during which senior executive engineer in planning Mr Michael Killeen said the council considered Government policy including the objective of reducing the amount of waste diverted to landfill in assessing the application and its decision to grant permission was proper.
He said it was not a material contravention of the county development plan and in fact the council felt such developments required to be located in a rural context.
He said there were no recorded monuments, protected structures, or special conservation areas that would be affected.
The hearing is continuing.