This article is from page 7 of the 2006-03-21 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 7 JPG
THE Central Waste Management Facility at Ballyduff Beg could face another rap over the knuckles from the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) following the latest alleged breach of its licence.
Local resident Perry Longe told The Clare People that documents which were required to be available for inspection at the Waste Management Facility were not available on last Thursday, March 16.
The EPA licence states that written documentation which relates to the licensed activities and “copies of the environmental monitoring results and reports” have to be kept on site and available for inspection at all times.
“I asked for both and they didn’t have either. They said that the documents had been removed to head office so that they could prepare for the court case,” said Mrs Longe.
“This amounts to another breach of the licence. They must have €20 million gone into there and if they cannot afford to keep duplicates then there is something seriously wrong.”
Last week it was revealed that local residents John Long along with Tom Harvey and his children Damien and Edel had instigated legal action against Clare County Council, over the operation of the facility.
The four people, who all have houses in close proximity to the Waste Management Facility, are seeking damages as well as the closure of the landfill facility at Ballyduff Beg.
They have been advised by their legal representatives not to speak to the media while the case is pending.
“I feel that it is a vindictive act in retaliation for the court case which is being taken by some of the local people here,” continued Mrs Longe.
“Nobody knows how long these documents might have been missing for. Between March 1 and March 16 there is no way of knowing.”
In January, the Community Liaison Committee for the facility sent a letter of complaint to the EPA informing it of alleged breaches in the licence over the Christmas period.
These breaches concern the closing of the facility’s ninth landfill cell, which the committee have claimed was disturbed without informing the EPA in writing, in compliance with the licence.
The waste management facility has threatened to divide the local community in recent years with local councillor Flan Garvey (FF) receiving a soiled article about the dump, anonymously, in the post before Christmas.