THE WASTE we create as a society does not go away of its own accord. Indeed, we are still living with a legacy of waste, often from activities that took place decades ago and have long since ceased. The latest example is Haulbowline, in Cork Harbour, where taxpayers are faced with an incalculable bill for cleaning up the hazardous residues left on the island after 60 years of steel production, mostly by a State-owned company, Irish Steel, and latterly by Irish Ispat, the domestic division of a huge multi-national company, which went into voluntary liquidation in 2001. An attempt by the State to have this company compelled to remediate the site failed in the High Court for obvious reasons - it had only been operating on Haulbowline for a small fraction of the history of steel production there.
In the past, mining activities caused some of the greatest environmental damage. The old copper mine in Avoca, Co Wicklow, wiped out the oyster beds in Arklow, and the leachate still flowing from long-ceased mining operations is largely responsible for the Avoca river being perhaps the most polluted in Ireland. Mines at Tynagh, Co Galway, and Silvermines, Co Tipperary, have also left a legacy that cannot easily be undone. Should gold mining start in Co Monaghan, it is obviously essential that a licence granted by the Environmental Protection Agency for this activity must include a bond of sufficient financial scale to remedy any environmental damage to the area; this is now a common practice under the agency's Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) licensing system.
Dealing with "legacy waste" is a thorny issue. For example, Ireland is obliged under the EU Waste Management Directive to remediate all the landfill sites operated by local authorities in the 20-year period during which this directive was effectively ignored. That was the effect of a judgment handed down in 2005 by the European Court of Justice - and, as with Haulbowline, nobody can say how much this will cost Irish taxpayers. The operation of landfill sites has become much more sophisticated over the past decade, certainly compared to the "dumps" we had in the past. Undoubtedly, this change is related to the application of the "polluter pays" principle, under which the cost of waste disposal is met by those who create the waste in the first instance.
However, as the case of Haulbowline shows, there is no room for complacency - and no justification, under any circumstances, for turning a blind eye to the environment merely to create, or protect, employment.