In the late 1970s, Ringaskiddy was a hotbed of environmental agitation. At the time, there was no Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Local authorities were the guardians of the environment but also had a job creation role, part of their brief being to attract industries to their areas and smooth the way for them. The arrangement left local communities with grievances wondering which way to turn.
One of the environmental battle grounds that led to the creation of the EPA was at Barnahealy, near Ringaskiddy, where Raybestos Manhattan wanted to create a dump for its waste asbestos. Cork County Council and the IDA were behind the company. After this newspaper found that Raybestos was dumping raw asbestos illegally at the Cork City Dump, and after serious confrontation, and on one occasion, a violent stand-off between the residents and company officials, the company left Cork.
It was already facing huge compensation claims by the families of American workers who had died or whose health had been damaged by inhaling asbestos particles.
The agitation at Barnahealy was brought to an end when the IDA and the residents entered into an agreement under which there would be temporary dumping by Raybestos while an alternative site was being found. The IDA also promised a new industry for the area if residents agreed to temporary dumping. They did, and the asbestos remains to this day under the ground at Barnahealy.
It is considered safer to leave it there rather than to move it. The spirit, if not the letter of the agreement, was that never again would there be a hazardous dump in the parish of Monkstown. Now it looks as if the issue is to be revisited.
An application is before Cork Co Council for planning permission to construct a plant almost at the same site as the old Raybestos dump, which would treat sludge from the pharmaceutical sector. According to the environmental impact statement prepared by the applicant, Cara Environmental Technology, the plant would incorporate a sludge reception area, a lime stabilisation plant, a waste transfer station, an ammonia stripping area as well as sludge storage and solvent storage tanks.
The company has told the Ringaskiddy and District Residents' Association that, apart from localised odours, there will be no smells and no noise from the plant.
As local opposition to the proposal began to mount, one of the key issues for the residents group was the original letter of agreement with the IDA on the future of the site. It was signed on December 7th, 1977, but the residents couldn't find a copy and the IDA, at first, said it didn't have one.
At the weekend, however, the IDA, following a solicitor's letter, handed over a copy of the agreement. The IDA agreement was sanctioned by Mr Des O'Malley, then minister for industry and commerce, at a meeting in Dublin with the residents. The residents felt they had extracted a pledge from the authorities that their area would never again be asked to host a hazardous waste dump.
The plant now being proposed, the residents claim, would break the spirit of the agreement. "In the 1970s it was called a dump; now they call it a waste management plant. I was a child when the protests started back then. Our parents were trying to protect our future. Now, we are trying to protect the future for our own children," Mr John Howard, a member of the association, said.
It seems certain that whatever decision Cork County Council makes, the issue will wind up before An Bord Pleanála.