‘We’re asked to take too much waste in Cavan’

“We are being asked to take a disproportionate amount of waste in relation to other counties, most landfills are closing while ours is expanding rapidly.†That is the view of Peter Sexton and Mary McDwyer of Cavan Better Waste Management, who oppose plans now before An Bord Pleanála from Oxigen Environmental Ltd to expand the scope of its operation at the Corranure landfill and recycling facility outside Cavan town. The Oxigen plan has been submitted directly to An Bord Pleanála as a strategic infrastructural development and Mr. Sexton and Ms McDwyer believe that many people may be unaware of the proposal, which was carried in a planning advert in the Irish Independent on Christmas eve, December 24, 2010. Any submissions or objections from interested groups or members of the public have to be sent to An Bord Pleanála by February 24, 2011. Oxigen has applied for planning permission to construct and operate an integrated recycling facility at Corranure landfill to process a total of 335,000 tonnes of waste per annum. It says the proposed facility will have an anticipated waste recycling/recovery rate of 73%. The integrated recycling facility entails the construction and operation of a materials recovery facility (MRF), a mechanical biological treatment plant (MBT) and a 12.4 hectare extension (phase 4) to the existing landfill to facilitate a further 18 years of residual waste landfilling at a rate of 90,000 tonnes per annum. The company says the landfill extension will be fully engineered and designed in accordance with Irish and EU directives. Voicing their opposition to the planned development, Mr. Sexton and Ms McDwyer feel it would set the scene for Corranure's indefinite usage. It is their contention that while Cavan County Council, as the local authority, is the ultimate owner of the site and earns significant revenue in its leasing arrangement with Oxigen, it is too high a price to pay for allowing the continuance of an operation so close to Cavan town which has already been the subject of much public criticism in recent years. According to Ms McDwyer and Mr. Sexton 300,000 tonnes landfilled in Cavan per year equals 1.6m tonnes of waste over 18 years and they ask if many people from the area realise this. They reckon that the Cavan population produces 10,000 tonnes for landfill annually and the big proportion of the additional waste comes from outside the county, particularly from Dublin, as Oxigen has a contract with Dublin City Council to take 25,000 tonnes of waste in the first six months alone of 2011. “We can't understand why Dublin waste has to come down to Cavan to be disposed of,†says Mr. Sexton, although he further explains that Minister for the Environment John Gormley has put a lot of obstacles in front of the city manager in relation to the Poolbeg incineration plant. “If Poolbeg doesn't open we are going to have to deal with that on top of everything else,†he says. When questioned as to the role of Cavan County Council in all of this, both Ms McDwyer and Mr. Sexton are careful to stress that they are not being unduly critical of the council and have had discussions with it in relation to Corranure. However, it is their view that everything about Corranure is in relation to money. “Any money generated from the landfill should be put aside for the landfill and shouldn't be going to the operating budget of the council. It should be set aside for the aftercare of the landfill as required under the Waste Management Act,†says Mr. Sexton. Ms McDwyer feels that what is proposed by Oxigen is a huge issue for schools, hospitals and the public and they want to make people aware of it. “There is superdump marked over this application and it is in black and white,†she says. Responding to The Anglo-Celt on the matter, Cavan County Council says that it will make its own submission to An Bord Pleanála and it is currently in the process of compiling that. “We will be dealing with the matter in planning terms, whether it fits in with the Cavan County Development Plan, regional planning guidelines and whether it conforms with national policy in relation to the treatment of waste,†stated director of service Ger Finn. The council wouldn't be elaborating further in relation to it submission, which will be forwarded to An Bord Pleanála in due course. Oxigen Environmental Ltd has not responded to The Anglo-Celt on the matter.