People who dump illegally are increasing the risk of spreading invasive plant species to one of the country’s most popular tourist attractions, it has been warned.

Killarney National Park has seen increased levels of dumping in recent years, including large amounts of domestic rubbish, used nappies, cans, bottles and even discarded household furniture. But there’s also concern about the dumping of garden waste in the 26,000 – acre park — which encompasses the famous lakes as well as large areas of woodland and mountain. The park is already trying to root out rhododendron, a pest which is the focus of an ongoing eradication programme started more than 30 years ago.

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A LONG–RUNNING planning dispute has been halted by the British government, the Irish Independent has learned.Donegal County Council’s plans to pump treated sewage from a proposed facility into Lough Foyle has been opposed by the Crown Estate, the official landlord of Queen Elizabeth.

In October 2011, the council published a compulsory purchase order, listing the pieces of land it was taking over.These included one 0.28–hectare parcel, the foreshore, which was listed as being owned by the Minister for Agriculture. However, the land is actually the property of the Crown Estate.

he British own the seabeds of Lough Foyle and Carlingford Lough, right up to the high–water mark on the Donegal and Louth sides of the Border. 

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A new plan to deal with waste from 11 council areas in Northern Ireland could see an incinerator and waste facility built near Mallusk in County Antrim. Arc21 said it intended to develop the “energy from waste” facility at a quarry on the Boghill Road. If planning is approved, the £240m investment would be one of the biggest, single infrastructure schemes ever undertaken in Northern Ireland. The plant could create 340 jobs and generate enough power for 30,000 homes.

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 The world supply of helium, which is essential in research and medicine, is being squandered, say scientists.

Oleg Kirichek, the leader of a research team at the Isis neutron beam facility at the UK’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, had an unpleasant shock last week. One of his key experiments, designed to probe the structure of matter, had to be cancelled – because the facility had run out of helium.

The gas, used to cool atoms to around –270C to reduce their vibrations and make them easier to study, is now becoming worryingly scarce, said Kirichek. Research facilities probing the structure of matter, medical scanners and other advanced devices that use the gas may soon have to reduce operations or close because we are frittering away the world’s limited supplies of helium on party balloons.

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 The Dublin Castle launch of Ireland’s EU presidency on New Year’s Eve was altered at the last moment when an environmental group objected to the release of 40 helium–filled balloons on the basis that they could end up as “lethal marine debris”. 

After Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE) contacted both the Taoiseach’s office and the EU’s Blue Star education programme, it was agreed that the balloons would be secured by long string and taken home by schoolchildren involved in the launch. 

FIE director Tony Lowes told the organisers: “It has been well established since a Canadian marine conference in 1989 that the release of gasfilled balloons is an environmental hazard.

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 Fines amounting to more than ¤1 million have been imposed on a leading waste management company and Cavan County Council after both were found to be in breach of waste licences at a controversial landfill in Cavan town over several years. 

Oxigen Environmental and the council were prosecuted for breaching the conditions of Environmental Protection Agency waste licences for two years, from February 14th, 2007. 

Both pleaded guilty to charges connected to their failure to ensure odours did not give rise to a nuisance at the Corranure landfill on the Cootehill Road. The dump has been at the centre of controversy for several years with local residents citing fumes and bad smells emanating from the site.

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 Director Karin Dubsky calls for levy on litter items possibly harmful to wildlifeThe plastic bag levy should be extended to condoms, sanitary pads, babies’ nappies, balloons, single–use cigarette lighters and other potential litter that’s harmful to wildlife, according to Coastwatch Ireland. 

Director Karin Dubsky issued the call yesterday after presenting the results of this year’s Coastwatch survey by more than 400 volunteers to Minister for Heritage Jimmy Deenihan. 

It covered a representative sample of 3 per cent of the coastline. Across all coastal counties, Coastwatch volunteers found more than 18,000 drinks containers – an average of 45 for each 500m of shoreline. Plastic bottles were the most common, followed by aluminium cans, glass bottles and paper cartons.

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€40m project covers only one of several legacy sites on Cork Harbour island

THE PROPOSED €40 million remediation plan for Haulbowline Island i n Cork Harbour will address only a former dump known as the East Tip, and will not address similar, legacy sites containing industrial pollution on the island, it has emerged. 

Cork County Council has said it would welcome a “Tier 1” risk assessment of the main steelworks site and another legacy dump, known as the South Tip. But the council said it did not own the sites and had “no authority to intervene”. 

Steel was produced on Haulbowline between 1939 and 2001 and waste from the process was dumped first at the South Tip and from the 1960s at a sand bar which became known as the East Tip. 

Last week, Cork County Council unveiled an ambitious plan to “cap” the East Tip in a remediation plan which could cost up to €40 million. The council had been asked by Minister Simon Coveney to put together the plan. However Friends of the Irish Environment expressed dismay that the plan will only cover the East Tip and not address issues of legacy pollution at the South Tip or the steelworks site.

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Residents in Cork Harbour are facing another massive battle with Indaver after it confirmed plans last night to lodge a third planning application for a €140m incinerator in the area.

The news came just hours after the waste management firm dropped its High Court challenge to An Bord Pleanála’s rejection of the project last year. 

Harbour residents, who have been fighting the incinerator project for 11 years, called on Indaver to walk away from the project. However, the firm said a fresh application would be made — most likely under An Bord Pleanála’s strategic infrastructure development process — in due course. 

Indaver managing director John Ahern said that the company dropped its legal challenge after considering a new report by Cork County Council on its waste management strategy. 

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Household waste from Cork city and county is being shipped out of Cork Port for incineration in the Netherlands and Sweden, where its used to generate electricity.

The practice started in the spring and 28,000 tonnes of waste has been dispatched. It is expected that, by year’s end, 50,000 tonnes will be sent for incineration.

However, two of the biggest domestic waste collectors in Cork have refused to disclose to the Irish Examiner whether they are shipping their waste overseas.

Country Clean and Wiser Bins failed to respond to emails and phonecalls yesterday asking if they were exporting waste.

It is understood the waste exports are in response to rising landfill costs in the southern region. It is believed the waste is being sold by the bin collection companies to Indaver, which ships it overseas. Shipments of domestic waste leave Cork port every three weeks.

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Campaigners against a proposed ¤160 million incinerator project for Cork harbour have accused the company involved of a U–turn after it began a consultation process with the local authority before a High Court challenge over the project.

Cork Harbour Alliance for a Safe Environment yesterday accused Indaver of reneging on assurances given at a Bord Pleanála hearing.

Alliance chairwoman Mary O’Leary said that Indaver chief executive John Ahern told the Bord Pleanála hearing that whatever the outcome of its application for the project, it would accept it as final.

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 Oxigen Environmental Ltd, which operates a waste and recycling collection facility in Waterford, had applied to the city council for permission to develop a waste and civic amenity facility on a site close to a major industrial park and Waterford Institute of Technology. 

However, a number of major employers, WIT and some local residents objected to the project, concerned that the 2.8 acre development would lead to traffic congestion, odours, litter and vermin problems. A decision on the planning application was due to be made this week but the company has withdrawn its application and is now seeking alternative sites.

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 THE cost of cleaning up more than 13 illegal dumps across the country will be almost €250m, the Irish Independent has learnt.

More than €135m has been spent so far with another €100m to be paid to remove rubbish and decontaminate land at sites in Cork, Wicklow, Waterford, Limerick and Carlow before the end of next year.

The total cost of fixing the problem of illegal dumps will amount to €241m, and almost half the bill –– some €92m –– will arise from cleaning up the former Irish Steel site at Haulbowline in Co Cork.

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THE ENVIRONMENTAL Protection Agency has directed three Dublin–based waste companies to stop using a facility at a Co Kildare farm to dispose of residual black bin waste.

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A new plan for the 20,000 tonnes–plus of Irish farm plastic recycled per year was the topic of the controversial meeting between Environment Minister Phil Hogan and Michael Lowry, TD — which took place six days after the Moriarty Report branded Mr Lowry as corrupt. 

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THE CLEAN–UP by the Environmental Protection Agency of an illegal dump at Kerdiffstown, Co Kildare, which will take many years to complete is to move a step closer with the removal of 8.5 million litres of polluted liquid from the contaminated site.
The agency spent some ¤3 million in January and February last year fighting a fire at the dump which resulted in the release of toxic smoke over the Naas area for more than four weeks.
Nephin Trading and associated companies Dean Waste and Jenzsoph Ltd operated at the landfill and recycling facility for 14 years until the agency secured court orders in 2010 shutting it down.

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 The Irish Farmers Association has welcomed the publication of the long–awaited standardsgoverning how the controversial new septic tank registration process will operate. The IFA said rural dwellers had been extremely concerned about theproposed regime but now welcomed “the clarity that the inspections will be visual and non–invasive.” Under the proposed system, houseowners are being asked to carry out an examination of their system at least once a year to “ensure there is no visual evidence that it is causing pollution or that it is in need of maintenance.”

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Almost half the State's sewage treatment plants in urban areas fail to meet EU standards - and it will take another three years to bring them into compliance, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

In a new report that is bound to be seized on by campaigners against the registration of septic tanks in rural areas, the agency said wastewater treatment plants had a "poor" level of performance and it called for a "step change" to meet clean water targets.

The latest report, the eighth in a series, is the first review of the operation of sewage treatment plants in 529 urban areas - including Dublin and other cities - since they became subject to a new licensing regime being rolled out by the EPA.

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Michael O'donnell SC, for landowner Brownfield Restoration, was responding to an application from the council for an adjournment of its case involving an illegal dump discovered at Whitestown in 2001.

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According to the EPA, management at the site - the biggest alumina refinery in Europe - have been "preparing for years" for its closure as the pond holds over 23 million tonnes of bauxite residue.

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