A planning application for a dump in Co Westmeath will be opposed by local residents who are meeting next week to organise a campaign against the facility.
The site earmarked for the landfill is at Annaskinnan, Killucan, a few miles from Kinnegad.
A Dublin-based waste management company, Celtic Waste Ltd, lodged an application with Westmeath County Council last Thursday.
An application for a licence for the proposed dump has also been made to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The landfill, if allowed to proceed, would accept 175,000 tonnes annually of domestic, commercial and non-hazardous industrial waste.
It would have an operating life of about 10 years with the waste disposal area covering 34.6 acres, which is a sand-pit at present.
"Domestic, commercial and industrial waste, generated primarily in the midland region, will be accepted for disposal at Annaskinnan," according to a brochure circulated by Celtic Waste Ltd to residents.
However, local people feel they should not have to accept waste from areas of the midlands outside Westmeath. Mr Denis Leonard, from Kinnegad, said if each county had to look after its own waste, it would make people more responsible for their waste output.
He said Westmeath already had two dumps, in Athlone and Mullingar, and these could take the 40,000 tonnes of rubbish produced in the county every year.
"This is designed to take 4 1/2 times the waste that Westmeath produces," he complained. "This is not a dump, it's a super-dump".
His main concern is that it is proposed to locate the landfill close to the Royal Canal. "I'm absolutely shocked that it's proposed for such a beautiful area," he said.
Celtic Waste Ltd has said waste will be transported to the site primarily from the N4, along the Kinnegad-Killucan road, and about 40 waste vehicles will arrive at the site daily.
Mr Leonard fears this will add considerably to traffic congestion in Kinnegad.
There are also fears about noise pollution, smells and flies, he said. "We will fight it with our last breath."
Mr Billy Kellaghan, who farms at Thomastown, close to the site, said locals knew nothing of the proposal until a brochure from Celtic Waste Ltd arrived in their letter boxes.
A meeting was hurriedly convened in a local hall and about 350 people attended. "There wasn't one in the whole hall that was in favour of it," he said.
He is concerned about the effect the development could have on the Royal Canal which flows close to his home and is only about 500 metres from the site.
He said £15 million had been spent on developing the canal as a local amenity, and he fears it could be destroyed if the landfill gets the go-ahead.
Mr Mattie Gaffney, from Ballyhaw, Killucan, is concerned about the risk of pollution to streams running through his land, and about traffic congestion on a country road. "The Kinnegad to Killucan road isn't even a national secondary route," he said.
Another local, Ms Madeleine Clarke, said the county's draft waste management plan had indicated that landfill was not an option that would be implemented before 2006.
Celtic Waste owns and operates the State's first private-sector, EPA-licensed landfill site at Kilcullen, Co Kildare, called KTK landfill, which opened in 1999.
A spokeswoman said the Annaskinnan landfill would be built to the highest environmental and engineering standards and would be operated in accordance with EPA guidelines.
It would be enclosed by a buffer zone of hedges, and the land would be returned to agricultural or amenity use on closure of the dump. "Comprehensive engineering measures will be employed to ensure it will not pose a threat to local watercourses or to groundwater," she said.
"We are committed to working with our neighbours at Annaskinnan to ensure that this much-needed waste management facility for the midlands is a success," the spokeswoman added.
She said Celtic Waste was aware of local concerns and these had been addressed in the environmental impact statement lodged with the planning application. She felt concerns would also be allayed if locals visited the company's landfill in Co Kildare. They were being invited to do this.
However, opposition to the proposal is mounting and residents are meeting again in Rathwire Hall on May 30th, at 8.30 p.m. Westmeath County Council has two months to decide on the planning application or it may, at the end of this period, seek further information from the applicants, which would delay their decision for a considerably longer period.