Huge volumes of waste would be transported from the Dublin region into Meath if a new landfill dump in the county was opened, a planning hearing in Navan was told yesterday.
A senior executive engineer in the county council's development control section, Mr Michael Killeen, said there was a clear conflict between an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) licence allowing the private waste-disposal firm, Celtic Waste, to accept 175,000 tonnes of waste each year at its proposed landfill dump at Knockharley, Kentstown, and the planning permission which the local authority had granted to the firm.
The council's planning permission would allow Celtic Waste to accept 88,000 tonnes of waste each year at the site.
The hearing was told that Celtic Waste planned to take 80,000 tonnes from the Dublin metropolitan area. It is appealing the tonnage limit imposed by the county council in the planning permission. Its original application was for 180,000 tonnes per year.