CONOR WALSH,
Madam, - Last week's report from the Health Research Board entitled "Health and Environmental Effects of Landfilling and the Incineration of Waste - A Literature Review", on which your newspaper carried two reports, has highlighted some of the risks associated with the ineffective waste management system in Ireland.
For nearly 10 years local authorities and the waste industry have tried to develop modern landfills to replace the old "high-risk" sites on which the HRB reported. Modern landfills are lined with high-density polyethylene and compacted clay layers to prevent ground-water contamination and the migration of gas.
The leachate (effluent) is collected and treated and the methane gas is used to generate electricity. The exposed area of waste, which is less than the size of a standard tennis court, is fully covered with plastic lining every evening. Rats, flies and birds are controlled by effective modern practices and are not a problem at new sites.
Our national policy is to provide 20 "state-of-the-art" modern landfills to serve our waste disposal needs. The health and environmental risks posed by these new landfills are insignificant compared with the risks of older, uncontrolled and poorly managed landfills, yet only three or four new sites have made it past the planning stage in the past 10 years.
In that time, approximately 10 new landfill proposals have been blocked by a combination of people including the planning authorities, the EPA, the courts and/or local politicians.
A number of these sites failed to get planning on the grounds of contravention of the "proximity principle", yet we sit back and watch half of Dublin's commercial waste being transported illegally to landfills in Northern Ireland and Scotland.
It is time for the State to recognise the crisis and face up to some unpopular but very necessary decisions for the good of our health and the environment. - Yours, etc.,
CONOR WALSH,
Environmental Director,
Thorntons Recycling,
Killeen Road,
Dublin 10.