West Waterford group may sue council over dump

Waterford County Council is to proceed with its plan to locate a "super dump" in the west of the county in spite of a decision by councillors that it should look elsewhere.

Residents in the area affected are contemplating legal action against the authority, claiming the public has not been properly consulted by council officials.

However, at Monday's meeting the county manager, Mr Donal Connolly, denied this claim, saying council staff had been available at all times and public meetings were held in Knockanore and Dungarvan.

Councillors voted by 12 to 10 on Monday in favour of a Fianna Fail motion which said the council should cease its search for a landfill in the west of the county.

Mr Connolly said yesterday, however, that he did not feel bound by such a motion as the council had already approved a waste management strategy, and this could not be changed by a simple vote. "We started down a particular course which was approved by the council, and I have a responsibility to proceed with that," he said.

The council now intends to carry out further tests, including an environmental impact assessment (EIA), of a site at Garrynagree, near Dungarvan, which consultants have identified as the most suitable of three that were under consideration.

Members of the Lickey Concern Group, which opposes the siting of a landfill at Garrynagree, claim the strategy was changed last year when the council decided to look for a site in west Waterford. The group says the council should be required to begin the public consultation process again.

The matter will next come before the council in December when the EIA is expected to be available, Mr Connolly said. The council would then apply to the Environmental Protection Agency for a licence for the landfill if the site was considered suitable.

The procedure is part of a joint strategy adopted by Waterford Corporation and the council to find a landfill for both city and county. Residents in the west, however, say it makes no sense to transport thousands of tonnes of waste across the county each month from Waterford city, where most of the refuse is produced.

The Lickey Concern Group says the decision to locate the landfill in the west is a breach of EU proximity policy, which requires that waste be disposed of as near as possible to where it is produced. Mr Connolly argues that the proximity principle is just one factor and the council was left with no alternative after its search in the east of the county proved unfruitful.

Residents also claim the three sites were selected because they are in sparsely populated areas and the authority expected little resistance. This is denied by council officials who say a site for the 60-acre landfill will be chosen on the basis of objective criteria and in line with EPA guidelines.

Opponents of the council's strategy say they have a range of environmental and economic concerns including a potential threat to groundwater quality and the effect on tourism of up to 100 lorries a day transporting an annual 60,000 tonnes of refuse to the site.