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A waste company has been restrained by the High Court from
accepting further deposits for part of its landfill site near
Naas, after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said
it had received more than 200 complaints about serious odours
from the site.
Mr Justice Seán Ryan granted an injunction to the EPA last
week against Neiphin Trading, which operates the landfill
site at Kerdiffstown
near Naas. The order applies pending the outcome of full legal
proceedings.
The judge had heard EPA inspectors detected strong
odours from landfill gas and composting activities
at two sites on the facility.
The EPA is taking separate court action against Neiphin Trading
- also known as A1 Waste - and others over the alleged illegal
disposal of 1.1 million tonnes of waste in a separate part
of the Kerdiffstown landfill.
In opposing the order, Neiphin said they had put proposals
to address the problems and complained that an injunction
would effectively shut down its business and could threaten
the jobs of 106 employees and 50 contractors.
Mr Justice Ryan said he did not accept that an injunction
would put the company into a condition of extreme financial
peril, but even serious impact and any potential devastation
had to be weighed against the public interest in being free
from environmental pollution.
The evidence before him at this stage was the landfill is
causing a nuisance to a number of people who live in the area,
he said. The company was failing to comply with its obligations
and was causing the problems of environmental pollution. There
was no right to run a business contrary to law or in such
a way as to create either a public or a private nuisance,
he added.
The court heard that about 200 residents had complained about
odours emanating from the landfill and one man had said in
an affidavit it was so unbearable on January 31st that he
began vomiting.
The company had apologised to local residents for the odours
emanating from the facility, but blamed the EPA for failing
to give agreement to infrastructure and maintenance work at
the site.
An advisor to the company, Dr Ted Nealon, wrote to the EPA
earlier this month stating that a lack of agreement on necessary
work was preventing the facility from operating in an orderly
fashion.
He told the EPA - “refusal to agree to the compost curing
infrastructure alone” was causing a “significant loss of revenue
to the company - estimated at some €250,000 per month” - with
a “considerable negative impact on the operation and development
of the facility”.
The improvements would include installing a temporary cap
and 'gas collection blanket' and the erection of a
'curing shed' for compost being processed and landfilled
on the site, so that it would “not give rise to any gaseous
emissions or odours,” he said.
According to Dr Nealon, Neiphin Trading had applied to the
EPA for an extension to the landfill site in March 2009, but
it was still awaiting a decision. Clarification was sought
on what additional information the agency required, “but no
response has been received to-date,” Dr Nealon said. The EPA
had declined to comment on the matter while the court action
is ongoing.
In December 2008, the Kerdiffstown site was raided by EPA
officers - accompanied by gardaí - and a number of documents
were seized. An associated company, Dean Waste, was also prosecuted
by Wicklow County Council for alleged illegal dumping.
Source - The Irish Times
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