GARDAÍ IN co-operation with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are continuing to investigate the cause of a major fire at a landfill near Naas, Co Kildare, which is the subject of multiple court actions.
The fire, which broke out on Thursday evening at a recycling building at the Kerdiffstown landfill, was the second at the dump in two months.
Emergency services were informed of the fire at the A1 Waste recovery and recycling centre at 5.49pm. Anthony Doyle, station officer with Naas fire brigade, said “tonnes and tonnes” of waste had caught fire and that a cloud of thick black smoke could be seen for miles around.
A spokeswoman for the EPA yesterday said a senior EPA inspector attended the scene on Thursday evening and would continue to liaise with gardaí to try to identify the source of the blaze. To date more than 300 complaints had been lodged with the EPA in relation to landfill, one of the highest levels of complaints of any landfill in the State, she said.
Earlier this month, the High Court granted a series of orders to the EPA against the operators of the site. Nuala Butler SC, counsel for the EPA, said it could cost between €30 million and €110 million to remove all waste dumped at the site before the first licence for the landfill was granted in 2003.
She said there was a lengthy history of non-compliance by Neiphin Trading, the operator of the landfill. Neiphin, also trading as A1 Waste, has gone into liquidation. Dean Waste, which had an association with the landfill, is in receivership, and Jenzsoph Ltd, which also had an association with the landfill, is insolvent. None of the companies could be contacted yesterday. Panda Waste, which has entered into an agreement to acquire some of the assets of the company, yesterday said it had not acquired the Kerdiffstown landfill.
Labour MEP Nessa Childers said the blaze showed the urgent necessity to have the site cleaned up and secured.
