The £600,000 costs to public to remove illegal waste from Border farm

Editorial Department • Published 5 Aug 2010 16:30 0 Comments

Share this

click to enlarge
Work begins on a farm in Slattinagh in Co. Fermanagh just over the border with Co Leitrim to remove 250, 000 tonnes of waste from the Republic of Ireland was dumped illegally.

Work has begun on removing thousands of tonnes of rubbish from an illegal dump near Garrison.

It is the first stage of a multi-million pound clean-up operation involving the excavation of around 20 sites in Northern Ireland where an estimated 250,000 tonnes of waste from the Republic of Ireland were buried between 2002 and 2004.

High landfill costs in the Republic meant criminals could make huge profits by illegally dumping the rubbish in Northern Ireland.

The dump at Garrison will be the first to be cleared as a matter of priority because effluent from it is already leaching out into the surrounding countryside. The site is in an environmentally sensitive area beside a river which flows into Lough Melvin, an important trout and salmon fishery and a source of drinking water for thousands of homes.

Under an agreement between environment ministers on both sides of the Border the Dublin Government will pay 80 per cent of the cost of repatriating the waste and the Northern Ireland authorities the remaining 20 per cent.

The total cost to the Irish taxpayer is estimated at over 36 million euro, or more than £30 million, over the next five years.

On a visit to Fermanagh yesterday (Wednesday) Environment Minister Edwin Poots revealed that it will cost the Northern Ireland taxpayer £600,000 to clear up the mess at Garrison and another illegal dump at Trillick. He said the total cost of repatriating the waste from all 20 sites would be in the "lower millions".

It was in December 2003 that officials from the Department of Environment found household waste from Cork and Wexford buried on Edwin Allingham's farm at Slattinagh, Garrison.

In 2006 the then 61-year-old Allingham became the first person in Northern Ireland to be imprisoned for illegal dumping when he was jailed for nine months.

His wife Freda, then a 58-year-old nurse, was sentenced to four months' imprisonment, suspended for two years, after a Crown Court jury convicted the couple of keeping controlled waste and having it without a licence. An estimated 4,500 tonnes of domestic rubbish were found buried on their 65 acre farm.

Allingham admitted being paid between £6,000 and £8,000 to allow the material to be dumped on his farm.

The Assets Recovery Agency subsequently sent the Allinghams a bill for £80,000 - the estimated amount of money they made from their criminal activities.

It is estimated that it will take a fleet of eight 30-tonne trucks, working Monday to Friday, three to four weeks to transport the waste buried on their farm to a licensed landfill site at Ballynacarrick, near Rossnowlagh, in Donegal.

The operation will then move to Bernard Barrett's former sand and gravel quarry on the Moneygar Road in Trillick.

Barrett appeared at Omagh Crown Court at the beginning of March and admitted keeping controlled waste without a waste management licence.

It was the third time the 66-year-old businessman had faced trial in relation to the illegal dumping of an estimated 10,000 tonnes of waste from the Republic of Ireland on his land. It included household rubbish and hospital waste such as incontinence pads, syringe covers, drip bags and medical tubing

He was given a conditional discharge for three years, meaning that if he stays out of trouble during that time he will hear no more about it.

He was also given 12 months to pay back the £100,000 he is estimated to have made from his criminal activity.

During yesterday's visit to Garrison Mr. Poots warned there would be no hiding place for those involved in the illegal dumping of waste in Northern Ireland.

"We are dealing with the legacy from 10 years ago, when illegal disposal of waste from the Republic was taking place on a large scale," he stated. "It involved serious criminality with absolutely no regard to the impact on the environment, local communities or our economy."

He said he was not aware of any on-going problem with illegal dumping. He explained that in the past local authorities in the Republic paid contractors to take the rubbish away without checking where it was going. His understanding was that there was now a much better mechanism for recording what happened to the waste. In light of the costs involved there was also an imperative on the authorities south of the Border to ensure that it did not happen again. He said he did not think he could guarantee that it would not happen again but added that there was now also a much more robust response from the NIEA (Northern Ireland Environment Agency) to those engaged in environmental crime.

Mr. Poots said that in his view the sentences handed out by the courts for those involved in illegal dumping were not punitive enough.

"Individuals have been making millions of pounds out of this and now the general public have been left with a bill for millions of pounds to clean it up," he stated.

"This process involved challenging work for my officials in DOE and the NIEA (Northern Ireland Environment Agency) and their counterparts in the Republic. It illustrates the importance of co-operation to protect the environment, pursue environmental crime and protect those who are trying to run legal waste businesses in these challenging economic times," the Minister stated.

Anne Blacker, Head of NIEA's Environmental Crime Unit, which investigated the illegal dumping, said: "The sight of lorries full of waste being removed represents the culmination of a great deal of planning and teamwork. We are removing a source of pollution which had the potential to keep polluting for decades."

The Fermanagh and South Tyrone MP Michelle Gildernew said: "This problem shows that waste management needs to be carried out on an all-Ireland basis. This is the only way to eradicate this type of illegal dumping, which is damaging the local environment, especially in a world renowned tourist area such as Garrison that is famous for it's unspoiled landscapes."

The SDLP MLA for the area, Tommy Gallagher, said: "While it's taken a long time, people are relieved to see the beginning of the process of removing this illegal waste because there have been major concerns about the health and environmental risks of pollution. This is particularly important as this site is very close to the Lough Melvin fishing lake.

"The government in the south has overall responsibility for this but there's also a cost for the government here and unfortunately the ratepayer here will have to pick up that tab for this irresponsible behaviour," he added.

"Lessons need to be learned and the authorities need to ensure that stronger safeguards are put in place to prevent any such repetition," stated Mr. Gallagher.

This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 05 Aug 10

Return to the main index, get more from this section or browse our News archives.