A HOLIDAY home for elderly people, run by the Society of St Vincent de Paul, is at risk of contamination from “uncontrolled migration of landfill gas” from a dump in Co Kildare, closed down by order of the High Court last May.
Kerdiffstown House in Co Kildare, which has been catering for clients of the charity since 1969, was identified in the final version of a report commissioned by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as being at risk from the nearby dump.
The gas escaping from it “consists primarily of carbon dioxide and methane but also contains trace amounts of other gases which have a pungent odour”, the EPA said. “Some components of landfill gas can be harmful at high concentrations . . .”
The report, compiled by SKM Enviros, was released by the agency following pressure from Kildare County Council and a local residents’ lobby group, Clean Air Naas, which is campaigning to have the dump at Kerdiffstown cleaned up.
Last month, it said the EPA had “declined to tell Kildare County Council the identity of the landowner being polluted by escaping explosive gases and toxic leachate from the dump”. But the final report had confirmed that it is Kerdiffstown House.
The Society of St Vincent de Paul has been using the 18th-century mansion to provide a week-long holiday every year for elderly people who, as its website says, “benefit hugely from the fresh air, peace exercise and companion-ship” it provides.
“For many, this holiday may be the only one they get and it is an escape from isolation and loneliness,” it says. In any week, the house can accommodate up to 103 guests. Queries about the impact of the dump were referred to the society’s headquarters.
The SKM report said: “Given lack of practical gas control measures at the site, there is a risk of uncontrolled migration of landfill gas off-site and towards the properties and underground services in the road and to the land within the ownership of Kerdiffstown House.”
The report also noted that risks to people within buildings from landfill gas “is associated with flammability and potential explosion risk of methane, and asphyxiation arising from accumulation of carbon dioxide and/or reductions in oxygen”.
According to the EPA, almost 50 million litres of landfill gas is escaping from the dump per year. But campaigners insist the true figure is 50 million litres per day, based on calculations derived from the SKM report, not all of which has been made available.
The EPA said it has been “testing for landfill gas ground migration at the installed monitoring wells since June 2010. The results to date do not indicate a current cause for concern with respect to landfill gas migration via the ground at this time.”
High Court orders prevent Neiphin Trading Ltd, which owns the site, depositing any further waste onto the Kerdiffstown site.
