The Environmental Protection Agency yesterday granted a proposed licence to contentious plans by Clare County Council to operate its new central landfill rubbish dump 2 km from the village of Inagh.
Immediately the Inagh Anti-landfill Group confirmed it would be objecting to the proposal.
In the 51-page document, the EPA has granted the council a licence to accept 62,500 tonnes of waste a year. Forty hectares of the 60.5-hectare site will act as a buffer zone: the landfill is to occupy 10 hectares.
The chairman of Clare County Council, Mr Sean Hillery (FF), said the decision to accept the council's application for a waste management licence was good news.
He said: "I can understand the fears of the local community when local authorities' past history in relation to the management of landfills is considered.
"However, with the regular environmental monitoring and various reports that the council will be required to carry out by the EPA to comply with its licence, the landfill will be managed to the highest possible standards."
A spokeswoman for the Inagh Anti-landfill Group said residents were disappointed at the decision.
"It is only a proposal, and we are very confident that a landfill will not established at Inagh. We are very determined," she said.
The application for the integrated waste management facility, made in August last year, includes the development of a landfill, a civic waste facility and a composting area on a forested site at Ballyduff Beg, Inagh.
An application for the compulsory purchase of the lands is currently before the Minister for the Environment and Local Government.
A public sworn inquiry was held into the compulsory acquisition last month. A decision in relation to the compulsory purchase order is due sometime in the new year.
The EPA decision offers some respite to Clare County Council as it faces an impending waste management crisis.
The EPA has already made a proposed decision to close the county's only existing landfill at Doora. This proposal has been appealed by the council and a final decision is expected by February 22nd.
Even if the EPA goes against its original decision and upholds the council's appeal, the landfill is to close definitely by the end of next June as a result of a High Court order secured by local residents.
Requests to transfer waste while Clare is without an operational landfill have been turned down by Limerick and Kerry County Councils. In a letter released under the Freedom of Information Act from the Clare county manager, Mr Willie Moloney, to his Kerry and Limerick counterparts making the request, he admits that the council's facility at Inagh will not be operational until mid-2002.
The residents have until January 24th to lodge their objection to the decision. The EPA will make a final decision four months after the objection period has expired.
The text of the EPA's proposed decision can be viewed on the agency's website, www.epa.ie
