Kildare council says hazardous incinerator fire too big a threat

Emergency services in Co Kildare would be put under major strain if a hazardous waste incinerator was allowed to be built near Kilcock, a Bord Pleanala hearing has been told.

In addition, Kildare County Council considers the fire protection arrangements proposed by Thermal Waste Management (TWM) are "inadequate and sketchy", according to the council's acting chief fire officer, Mr Tony Kelly. The council also found it could not supply enough water for the plant.

Giving evidence at the third day of the hearing in Maynooth, Mr Kelly said the scale of the TWM thermal treatment plant was much larger than the eight hazardous waste recovery and disposal facilities already licensed in Ireland. TWM is appealing the council's decision to refuse permission for the £65 million incinerator to process hazardous and municipal waste.

There would be a "cocktail of hazardous waste in all forms" on Kildare's road and rail system, close to densely populated towns on its way to the incinerator. This would "cause major problems for the emergency services in the county", Mr Kelly added.

Mr Kelly criticised TWM's fire protection policy for not providing details of where or how its fire safety systems would operate. "The report talks of `options' and not proposals."

A fire prevention consultant, Mr Donal O'Driscoll, who designed the policy for TWM, said it involved as good a fire safety system as could be got anywhere. The extent of prevention to be put in place and type of waste to be processed meant the risk was equivalent to that of a petrol-filling station.

Mr Barry White SC, for North Kildare-South Meath Alliance Against Incineration, submitted that TWM was not prepared to foresee the worst-case scenario, such as an entire conflagration of the site and associated business park. Mr O'Driscoll replied: "Absolutely not".

When Mr White noted nobody had foreseen the Stardust or Betelgeuse disasters, and claimed TWM was "blindly operating on the basis of not considering the worst-case scenario", he said he would be foolish to operate on such a basis. But the degree of prevention and operation envisaged did not require consideration of the possibility of a major fire disaster. Mr O'Driscoll told Mr Tony Osborne, for the council, that its concern about traffic carrying hazardous waste, which it could not cope with in an emergency, had begged the question: "what would you do if a petrol or liquid petroleum gas tanker overturned in your jurisdiction?"

Hazardous waste was travelling through the county on a daily basis already. "A filling station down the road would provide just as much a problem as our facility," he added.

Mr Des Page, the council's senior sanitary services engineer, said the quantity of water required by TWM was not available in the county. In addition, the infrastructure was not present to deliver water to the site at Boycetown "without compromising services to Kilcock and wider surrounds".

The council had agreed a waste management plan in December which would see refuse diverted away from Silliot Hill landfill near Naas to Arthurstown landfill run by South Dublin Co Council, a waste disposal engineer, Mr Michael Holligan, said. This was a short-term measure, as Silliot Hill had only about 15 months' capacity left.

Biological treatment and recycling of waste in the county would be expanded and, in the longer term, Kildare Co Council would join neighbouring local authorities in finding alternatives to land-filling waste - the plan excludes the incineration of municipal waste in the county.