All waste disposal sites will have to be licensed

ALL waste disposal facilities, including municipal dumps, will have to be licensed and independently monitored following the announcement yesterday of a new waste licensing system by the Environmental Protection Agency.

From May 1st all new landfills, whether privately run or operated by local authorities, will require an EPA licence, while facilities already in place will be subject to a phased introduction of licensing up to March, 1999.

The new system will impose stricter environmental controls on the State's 120 waste disposal facilities, specifically on their location, development, use and aftercare. The Minister for the Environment, Mr Howlin, said after announcing the new system that it represented "a major step forward for environmental protection in Ireland. It will provide for better protection of soil, air, groundwater and surface water from the harmful effects of waste disposal activities."

It would also improve public confidence in the development, operation and aftercare of waste disposal facilities, Mr Howlin said. It would require local authorities to identify roles and responsibilities more clearly, and, make them subject to external regulation.

The Minister accepted that higher standards, which the new system would bring, involved increased costs for the provision and operation of waste disposal facilities - it would also mean a concentration of inevitably bigger landfill sites.

The system will also instal a mechanism for the application of further controls which the EU may demand.

Mr Howlin said he wants to extend waste management Acts by requiring that all new landfill sites, need an environmental impact statement. Up to now, facilities processing more than 25,000 tonnes of waste a year were subject to an EIS. New regulations on packaging waste, farm plastics, registers and waste collection permits are also to be introduced.

The EPA outlined the new licensing system to representatives of local authorities and environmental interests. Its director general, Mr William McCumiskey, said it would "sound the death knell for dumps of old".