Waste firm to reapply to EPA

Waste Management Ireland, the company proposing to develop a "super-landfill" at Silvermines, Co Tipperary, will reapply to the…

Waste Management Ireland, the company proposing to develop a "super-landfill" at Silvermines, Co Tipperary, will reapply to the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) for a waste management licence for their £16 million waste facility in the new year.

The company had withdrawn its original application for the licence days before a scheduled EPA oral hearing.

The hearing, which was scheduled for Monday next, resulted from an objection by Waste Management Ireland against the EPA's opposition to its previous proposal.

The main difference between the two applications is detailed engineering proposals dealing with cavities at the site.

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This was already part of the submission to the EPA, said Mr Mark Gilligan, Waste Management Ireland's development manager.

Included in the new submission is an additional engineering report dealing with concerns expressed in relation to mining in the area and other issues raised by other parties.

Meanwhile, Mr Gilligan said yesterday that a "superdump" at Silvermines could be the interim solution to the State's waste management crisis.

The development of the Silvermines landfill, using rail links, could help solve waste management problems, in the medium to long term, while the national strategy on waste was being implemented.

On the planning side, the EPA proposed last August to refuse a licence to the waste company for eight separate reasons.

These included: the instability of the disused mine - in which it is planned to develop the landfill; the dangers to ground water; and that the development failed to address the potentially negative impact of the facility on the achievement of national prevention, minimisation and recycling targets set out by the Government waste management policy.

Mr Gilligan, confirmed yesterday that they would submit a new application to the EPA addressing issues raised in the proposed EPA decision.