Threat to Tipperary groundwater prompts calls to halt €2.2m landfill project
Councillors in north Tipperary have called for works on the Ballaghveny landfill site near Nenagh to be paused amid concerns that the project could affect local groundwater supplies.
At the June meeting of Tipperary County Council, the councillors from the Nenagh district tabled a motion calling on the council to pause works at Ballaghveny in order for an independent review to be carried out.
Capping of the historical landfill is currently underway, which aims to limit environmental exposure to the rubbish in the landfill, and to support the use of the land into the future.
In response to the motion, director of services for the environment Eamon Lonergan said that the project to cap the historical landfill is worth over €2million, and the council would be in breach of their contract if they stalled the works.
“There is a real significant risk of impacts if were were to do that, a suspension would effectively be a suspension of works and it would result in a number of things.
“We have a contractor on the site, he’s been there since last year, the works are almost finished. He’s doing works that have been approved under our license that are engineering cap works. These are very costly works, it’s over €2.2million worth of engineering works,” Mr Lonergan explained.
“If we paused works, we would enter into a contractual disputer, exposing the council. These works are funded 100pc from the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment. We can’t expose the taxpayer to that level of debt,” he added.
The council also have a legal requirement and obligation to carry out these works, the meeting was told, with the council also potentially being taken to court by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) if the works are not done.
Fine Gael councillor for Ballina Phyll Bugler said that the old landfill may be having an impact on the groundwater in the area, raising concerns among locals.
“Where we’re coming from is the threat to the groundwater. Cells one and two [of the landfill] do not have a membrane, and we’ve heard from the Ballymackey Environmental Group that the water can rise up to four metres in that cell, which leads to long-term leachate,” Cllr Bugler said.
Leachate happens when water mixes with waste in a landfill, dissolving hazardous materials which can leak into groundwater supplies.
“Is there toxic waste in these cells, is there batteries and paint in there?” Cllr Bugler asked.
“If there’s batteries in there, you have heavy metals leaking into the groundwater, and therein lies the problem,” she added.
Seconding the motion, independent councillor Michael O’Meara said that the landfill was used in the 1980s and 1990s, a time that had “very loose” environmental standards.
“Ballaghveny, to me, is not a proper landfill site under the modern environmental standards. There is no plastic underneath the cells to prevent the material going down into the ground,” he added.
Mr Lonergan said that the EPA have been taking samples from the site for years, and will continue to do so, and said that a lot of money and time had been spent on making sure the job was being done to best environmental practices.