Local authorities in Waterford and Kilkenny are under intense pressure to find alternatives to existing waste management plans.
A petition containing more than 2,000 letters and some 800 signatures was delivered to Kilkenny County Council last week by a group campaigning against controversial plans for an incinerator to dispose of waste from the entire south-east region.
Councillors are being urged to exclude the incinerator proposal from the county development plan, on which they'll be voting in the next few weeks.
An even more urgent problem, however, confronts Waterford County and City Councils after consultants last week ruled out two sites in the county which had been earmarked as potential locations for a landfill to cater for both city and county waste.
The decision not to proceed with the landfill at either Ballybrack or Stradbally was greeted with jubilation by residents, who had fought a year-long campaign to prevent the council from locating the dumps in populated areas.
But it's not such good news for those living near existing landfills at Dungarvan and Kilbarry in Waterford city, who face the prospect of dumps which are already full to near-capacity being used for several more years.
The County Council secretary, Mr Peter Carey, said the alternatives would become more clear at the council's next meeting on November 8th, when a consultancy firm, John B. Barry, presents its findings on the Ballybrack and Stradbally sites and outlines an appropriate strategy for the future.
The consultants advised the council verbally last Friday that the sites were unsuitable on technical grounds, including insufficient soil depth. The two locations were among three which had initially been earmarked as potentially the most suitable landfill sites in the county. The third, at Kildarmody, was ruled out some time ago.
The latest development has raised questions about how the county council could spend so much time and money pursuing options which have ultimately left it back at square one three years after the waste management strategy for the city and county was first adopted.
Members of the Ballybrack Against Dump campaign, however, are simply relieved that the prospect of a major landfill on their doorstep has been removed, almost a year after being first mooted. "It's been like a nightmare since last November, when we first heard this area was being considered," said the group's secretary, Ms Mary Cummins.
The group had enlisted the services of a hydro-geologist from Cambridge, Dr R. Paul Ashbury, and, according to Ms Cummins, it was clear that the site was unsuitable for a number of reasons. Most residents of the area rely on private wells for their water supply, and their chief concern was the effect the dump would have on water quality.
With no alternative in sight, Waterford Corporation had already applied for Environmental Protection Agency approval to continue dumping waste at Kilbarry for a further five years. The move has been opposed by the Green Party, which says the application is "outrageous" and the corporation should be given no more than 12 months to find another site.
In the longer term, the proposed siting of an incinerator in the south Kilkenny/east Waterford/west Wexford area continues to be a major issue in the region. The proposal is part of the South East Regional Authority's waste management strategy, which has been adopted by five of the six county councils in the region, Wexford being the exception.
The south Kilkenny-based Incinerator Study Group, however, is now asking that councillors refuse to include the proposal in the new county development plan.
The group is to hold a public meeting, which will be addressed by a New York incineration and waste management expert, Dr Paul Connett, at the Tower Hotel in Waterford on November 24th.
