People living in Lusk, Co Dublin, thought the Balleally dump would be closing at the end of this year. Instead, they were shocked to discover that Fingal County Council planned to triple its size, extending its "life" for another 15 to 20 years.
The Balleally dump, which has been operating for 25 years, was reclaimed from Rogerstown Estuary. Earlier plans to extend it on the seaward side were turned down by the Department of the Marine because of the estuary's importance for wildlife.
The estuary is covered by several protection measures, mainly because of its value as a wintering site for Brent geese. It is also an important habitat for other wild birds, such as teal, wigeon, shelduck, plover, lapwing, oystercatcher, dunlin, curlew and redshank.
Birdwatch (formerly known as the Irish Wildbird Conservancy) regards Rogerstown Estuary as so significant that it purchased more than 40 acres of land there and has a management agreement with local farmers to protect its threatened saltmarsh and mudflats.
Any proposal to extend the Balleally landfill site has been vigorously opposed by Birdwatch, which makes no distinction between the relative importance of the inner estuary, west of the DublinBelfast railway line, and the broader body of water beyond it.
Currently, the landfill site caters for about 1.27 million tonnes of waste a year from the Dublin region. It is regarded by Fingal County Council as being of "strategic importance"; indeed, following the closure of Dunsink, it is the only major dump north of the city.
However, an environmental impact study (EIS) commissioned by the council conceded that the existing landfill was a "significant source of potential nuisance" because of the increased number of seagulls as well as the presence of litter, odours and flies in the vicinity.
The EIS was carried out to assess the impact of extending the site to cover some 370 acres of land to the north, half of it to be used for dumping and the rest as a "buffer zone" to insulate it from the surrounding area - notably the village of Lusk.
Fingal County Council estimated that the extended site could be used to dispose of 17 million tonnes of municipal waste over 15 to 20 years. There would also be facilities to recycle construction/ demolition waste as well as organic waste.
It also proposed to build a sewage treatment plant to treat the sewage from Lusk and Rush as well as leachate from the landfill. A new "dedicated access route" for refuse trucks was envisaged to divert this traffic from Balleally Lane.
The plan was greeted with uproar locally. Residents of Lusk saw it as an "environmental disaster" for the village, just half a mile to the north, and they demanded that the plan be scrapped and the existing tiphead closed at the end of this year.
Such was the strength of public protest that the Fingal county manager, Mr William Soffe, was forced to back down. He agreed to request the Environmental Protection Agency not to consider the planned extension in the council's application for a licence to operate Balleally.
All local authorities were required to submit landfill licence applications to the EPA by October 1st. In the case of Balleally, Mr Soffe told Fingal councillors that he would have an amended application - minus the planned extension - ready to be lodged "within two weeks".
So far, it has not materialised. Mr Michael Hartnett, who heads the council's environmental division, told The Irish Times that it had decided to omit the extension "for the moment", without "prejudging" the outcome of a further review of its disposal options.
With the controversial Kill dump in Co Kildare just opened but likely to last for only seven years, Balleally was seen as a crucial element in Dublin's waste infrastructure. If no alternative can be found, Fingal County Council will almost certainly take another stab at it.