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[Press Release: July 14th, 2005] EPA decision not to grant waste licence for Roadstone's Blessington landfill takes pressure off Roche claims de BurcaGreen Party councillor, Deirdre de Burca, claims that the recent decision by the Environmental Protection Agency to refuse a waste licence for a purpose-built landfill on Roadstone’s lands at Blessington has "taken the pressure" off Minister Dick Roche. She points out that as Minister for the Environment, Minister Roche had endorsed the Section 55 Notice issued by Wicklow County Council, requiring Roadstone Dublin Ltd to create a purpose-built landfill on its lands at Blessington to deal with more than 100,000 tonnes of illegal waste found dumped there without having to go through the planning process. "This meant that if the EPA had actually granted the waste licence to Roadstone to develop the landfill, local people would have been deprived of the opportunity to object to the landfill through the normal planning process" says de Burca."If the EPA had granted the licence and the development of the landfill had gone ahead on Roadstone’s land, I think there would have been a popular uprising in Blessington" says de Burca. "Local people could see that a ‘sweetheart deal’ had been agreed between Wicklow County Council and Roadstone and that this was being done at the expense of people who lived in the town. The independent report by environmental consultants TMS that was commissioned by the Blessington Forum reached the conclusion that the proposed location for the landfill was not a suitable one. The report actually stated that the location for the landfill appeared to be dictated more by Roadstone’s commercial considerations than any real assessment of the possible public health or environmental impacts". Councillor de Burca claims that there was a huge level of anger amongst local residents at the fact that Minister Dick Roche had not used his power as Minister for the Environment to require Roadstone to go through the planning process as part of the development of the landfill on its lands at Blessington. The Green party councillor has expressed her delight at the decision by the EPA, which she claims is "historic". "To my knowledge, the EPA has never before refused a waste licence for a major landfill such as this" she says. "I congratulate all of the residents of Blessington, including the BRAD group and the Blessington Forum for the sustained campaign they have carried out in opposing this opportunistic proposal to create a landfill on Roadstone’s lands at Blessington to cater for the illegal waste that was found there. The EPA has made the right decision and now the onus is back on the County Manager of Wicklow County Council to decide on a more appropriate course of action. It is my hope that this will be done as soon as possible because residents in Blessington are still living with the daily fear of contamination of their water supplies because of the leaching of the illegal waste into the local groundwater supply. Others are living only several metres from landfill gas vents and this is totally unacceptable, either in the short or long-term".
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