EPA demands control of odour, dust at docklands

The Environmental Protection Agency has demanded that new measures be taken to control odours and dust emissions coming from decontamination work at the former Dublin Gas site in the city's docklands.

The site's owners, the Dublin Docklands Development Authority, have described the problem as "nothing major", but said they would comply fully with the EPA's requests.

The EPA wrote last week to consultants overseeing decontamination work for the authority following "numerous complaints relating to odour and dust" arising from the 11-acre site along Sir John Rogerson's quay. Formal complaints reached the agency from the staff of Bord Gais, An Post, Esat and residents in the area.

The authority has a licence from the EPA to carry out remedial work at the site, which is known to be chemically contaminated after two centuries of town gas production. The complaints "represent non-compliances with conditions 6.7, relating to odour, and 6.8, relating to dust, of the licence", according to the EPA's letter to the consultants, Parkman Environment of South Wirral, Britain.

The agency specified eight "actions required" including the provision of a 24-hour emergency telephone service to allow nearby residents to report odours, dust and other problems. The consultants were told to prepare an "odour fact sheet" listing the contaminants likely to be encountered during the clean-up, and were required to meet the people making complaints.

It also demanded a number of actions on the site, including extra odour and air quality monitoring, the immediate use of sheeting to cover exposed soil and continuous spraying to prevent dust and odours moving off site.

"You should be aware that failure to comply with the conditions of a waste licence is an offence under the Waste Management Act 1996," the EPA letter pointed out. Continued non-compliance would leave the authority open to prosecution and a fine, according to the EPA.

The authority had said from the beginning of the project that it would work closely with the EPA, according to a spokesman for the authority. "The monitoring we said would take place is taking place," he said yesterday, adding that all additional requirements from the EPA would be complied with "totally".

He said, however, that these were only minor infringements of the EPA controls. "There is nothing major within them whatsoever," he said. "There is nothing toxic released at the moment."

The Green Party has threatened to picket the site if the authority did not comply with the EPA's demands.