BACKGROUND:The introduction of the landfill levy in 2002 drove the illegal dumping trade into the North
THE ILLEGAL dumping of about one-quarter of a million tonnes of waste from the Republic in Northern Ireland, which now must be reclaimed by the Government at huge cost, is believed to have occurred from 2002 to 2004.
The catalyst for the illegal cross-Border trade was undoubtedly the introduction of the landfill levy by the Government in June 2002.
The levy, set initially at €15 a tonne, resulted in a steady increase in the gate fees charged by legal landfill operators in the south.
By 2004, average landfill charges across the State had exceeded €200 a tonne, compared to the equivalent of about €50 a tonne in the North.
The Government had long been aware of the illegal export of waste. Under EU rules, municipal waste cannot be sent outside the country for disposal, yet successive Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports had shown that hundreds of thousands of waste went “missing” each year, in that they were known to have been generated, but not disposed of, within the State.
The embarrassing revelation in early 2004 that 10,000 tonnes of waste from 13 different counties in the Republic had been dumped in just six months at one landfill site in Tyrone, and the impending threat of heavy EU fines, focused the authorities on both sides of the Border to crack down.
Two sites, one at Slattinagh, Co Fermanagh, and the other at Trillick, Co Tyrone, containing between them 14,000 tonnes of waste, will be the first to the excavated. Waste from the sites will be brought to Ballynacarrick landfill, Co Donegal, and remedial works will then take place.
Minister for the Environment John Gormley has described the problem as a “legacy issue” and said he believed that large-scale cross-Border dumping was no longer taking place.
Criminal gangs from both sides of the Border were believed to have been involved in the lucrative illegal waste trade, which legitimate waste operators estimate made multimillionaires of several rogue traders. The Northern Ireland authorities also identified illegal cross-Border dumping as a prime source of revenue for paramilitary groups.
However, prosecutions for illegal dumping have focused on the landowners who have allowed dumping on their land. This is because they are easier to identify than the dumpers. So far, four landowners have been imprisoned and fines of about £800,000 (€965,000) have been handed down. As the landowners fined have all been in the North, the fines remain in that jurisdiction, and it appears the Government will have little chance of recouping the estimated €36 million it will have to spend repatriating the waste through fines. However, all the waste removed from the 20 sites across the North will be examined in an attempt to establish its origins.
Mr Gormley says he hopes that prosecutions could be brought against illegal operators in the Republic on the basis of this evidence.
