Green Party councillor, Deirdre de Burca, has condemned the Roadstone company for the recent breaches of its EPA Waste Licence for the treatment and remediation of illegal dumps on its lands at Blessington, West Wicklow.

De Burca made her remarks following an examination of reports in the EPA offices which showed that Roadstone had failed to carry out the weekly water tests required of it by its EPA Waste licence during the period May to July 2006. The Green Party councillor also expressed concern at the fact that Roadstone is in negotiations with the EPA to have its waste licence amended so that it can leave a much larger amount of illegal waste on its site at Blessington.

"The EPA's records also showed that the gas tests being carried out by Roadstone as part of its waste licence are showing alarmingly high levels of gases such as carbon dioxide and methane" she says. "For example, the levels of methane gas reported are eight times higher than the levels permitted. This will be a huge matter of concern for people who live near to the illegal dumps".

The Green Party councillor says that Minister Dick Roche's decision in June 2006 to allow a new water reservoir to proceed at a site on Roadstone's land next to the illegal dumps appears even more flawed in the light of this new information. "The people of Blessington have cause to be very concerned about their future water supply given what they now know" she says.

"As we are aware, Wicklow County Council abandoned its investigations of the illegal dumps on Roadstone's land after about 6 weeks" says de Burca. "Since then we have had to rely on Roadstone and their consultants to tell us how much and what kind of illegal waste is on site. The recent test showing extremely high levels of toxic gases and the company's failure to carry out the water tests required certainly suggest to me that the toxicity of the waste may be much greater than originally suspected".

De Burca is calling on the Minister for the Environment and the EPA to ensure that Roadstone complies fully with the terms of its waste licence. She is also calling for fully independent monitoring of all tests carried out at the site. "Finally I am calling on the EPA to refuse Roadstone its request to leave more illegal waste on the site than was allowed by its waste licence" she says. "To do so would be to allow this company to evade its responsibilities and to increase the risk to public health and to the local environment".