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[Press Release: October 6th, 2004] Proposed Roadstone landfill at Blessington will create "disturbing precedent" claim GreensThe Green Party has reacted with concern to the recent disclosure by Roadstone Dublin Ltd that it is to apply for a special one-off licence from the Environmental Protection Agency to deal with three separate illegal dumps on its lands at Blessington in Wicklow by creating a special landfill on the site. The Roadstone dumps are among a number of large- scale illegal dumps uncovered in Wicklow three years ago.According to Wicklow Green Party councillor, Deirdre de Burca, if Roadstone is successful in having a licence granted by the EPA for a landfill on the site, this will create a "disturbing precedent" in relation to other illegal sites in the county. "In effect, the location of illegal dumps in the county will be determining where future landfills will be created" says de Burca. "This is not acceptable, particularly in the case of the Roadstone site at Blessington which is on an acquifer, and which under normal circumstances would not be deemed a suitable site for a landfill". The Green councillor has also challenged the description of the proposed landfill at Blessington as one which will only deal with an estimated 50,000 tonnes of the 100,000 tonnes or so of illegal waste that were discovered on the site. "It is highly probable that if a licensed landfill is created at this site, it will accept other wastes in the future, given the current shortage of landfill capacity in the county, and the planned expansion of Blessington over the next decade" she says. Councillor de Burca has publicly questioned the monitoring of the wastes put into the proposed landfill should the application be successful. She claims that it will be impossible for Wicklow County Council to determine whether the wastes which will be handled by the proposed landfill willl be those that were already on the site or wastes that have been accepted from elsewhere. " I believe the proposed landfill is unacceptable both from an environmental point of view, and from the point of view of natural justice" she says." Local people should not have to accept a landfill being imposed upon them, only a short distance from the village, because of criminal activity which has occurred there in the past". Councillor de Burca has called upon the newly appointed Minister for the Environment and Wicklow TD, Dick Roche, to clarify his position in relation to the proposed Roadstone landfill. "I would like to know what action Minister Roche intends to take, if any, in relation to the issue" she says. She has also called on her colleagues on Wicklow County Council to amend the Draft Wicklow County Development Plan to rule out the possibility of any illegal dumps in the county being converted into legal landfills in the future.
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