Plans for a large modern landfill in Silvermines, Co Tipperary, to serve local authorities throughout the State have been outlined by one of the world's largest waste management companies.
Planning permission with an environmental impact assessment (EIA) are due to be submitted by Waste Management Ireland to Tipperary North Riding County Council next month for a £16 million facility. Its proposed location is a disused quarry near Silvermines, and it is envisaged that waste will be transported there on the national rail network.
The company, part of the giant US-owned Waste Management Incorporated group, said yesterday the "strategic landfill" would allow local authorities to close smaller landfills and perhaps obviate the need for new landfills. Local authorities in Limerick have been planning to build a controversial landfill in the Slieve Felim mountains, in a remote, elevated site less than 10 miles away. Waste Management Ireland said it did not intend to take the easy option of landfill. Over time it was intended to introduce waste minimisation and recycling in tandem with developing the Silver mines landfill facility, according to its development manager, Mr Mark Gilligan. Ultimately, Silver mines would be a repository for "waste residues" generated from waste management programmes when the stringent new waste management legislation took full effect.
The disused quarry is a "large unattractive hole in the ground and visible for many miles", according to the company's government affairs manager, Mr David Boyd. It is about 200 feet deep and has a massive capacity of more than seven million tonnes over 25 years. It is envisaged that trains would bring in 300-tonne loads at a time in sealed containers, with a total throughput of 180,000 tonnes a year.
Visual impact would be minimised while surrounding scarred landscape would be "restored", he said. Using rail made the proposal one of "clear environmental benefit" as there would be next to no local road traffic, he added. "Silvermines also has the unique advantage of an existing rail spur right up to the site."
The Iarnrod Eireann spokesman, Mr Barry Kenny, confirmed it was in discussions with Waste Management Ireland, one of several companies considering waste transport by rail. The use of rail was ideal for containerised waste transport, while the company would consider such proposals as a "commercial opportunity".
The Silvermines plan would fit in with new waste management policy recently announced by the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, according to Mr Boyd. This calls on local authorities to work in closer co-operation with private industry on waste disposal and to adopt regional strategies to address landfill problems, including switching to recycling.
The company said no local authority had yet committed itself to using the facility, but it expected this to happen once planning permission and an EPA licence was obtained. At least four local authorities' waste would be required to make it viable. Waste Management Inc processes waste for eight local authorities in Northern Ireland and has facilities in 25 other countries involving landfill, usually in combination with advanced recycling technology and sometimes incineration.
The company has circulated videos and brochures to people living in the area but its plan is encountering opposition. Ms Kathleen O'Meara, a Labour Senator who lives in north Tipperary, said the landfill could prove to be disastrous to the greater area when factors such as its considerable tourism potential and the decline in agriculture are considered. A mining heritage centre proposed by Shannon Development for Silvermines was set to give momentum to other tourism projects. "A dump is not the way forward. A heritage centre is."
Mr Pat Keane of Silvermines Action Group said it was not suitable and could jeopardise the heritage centre planned for less than a mile away. "The company paints a rosy picture. It could be well managed but we don't believe it will be a clean operation." Their worst fear was that groundwater would become contaminated despite an undertaking to seal the landfill, he added.
