Archived press release

Waste crisis deepens

21 June 2004

Friends of the Earth today revealed that it has made a fresh complaint [1] to Europe on Northern Ireland's growing waste problem. The complaint is the second the campaign group has made on our poor waste record [2].

The green group claims that a number of landfill sites have been allowed to close without adequate monitoring and aftercare plans. This represents a breach of the European Landfill Directive [3] - in some cases the waste disposal licence has simply been filed away or binned.

The Landfill Directive is an important piece of legislation which prevents landfill sites from polluting drinking water and nearby streams and rivers; stops the build-up of dangerous landfill gases which can cause explosions; and ensures sites don't cause a nuisance to local people. Sites which are closed without proper monitoring and aftercare plans could pose an environmental and health threat for many decades.

Waste Campaigner, Declan Allison, claimed the blame for allowing this situation to develop lies
squarely with DOE:

"It is not acceptable for landfill operators to simply lock the gates, hand in their licence and walk away. But this is precisely what DOE has allowed them to do. These sites will continue to pollute the environment and damage people's health for 30 or 40 years. They should be carefully monitored and the operators should be liable for any damage they cause."

He continued:

"DOE Environment and Heritage Service (EHS) is in chaos and is unable to answer a basic question such as how many waste disposal licences are in operation. It is clearly not up to the job. This is further evidence of the need for an independent Environmental Protection Agency. Such an agency would not allow European law to be circumvented in this cavalier fashion."

Notes

[1] (back) The complaint (PDF format) was made on Northern Ireland's failure to implement the European Directive 1999/31/EC on the landfilling of waste (Landfill Directive) on time.

[2] (back) In April Friends of the Earth made a complaint (PDF† format) on the lack of enforcement of the Waste Framework Directive. This complaint was specifically about the burgeoning illegal landfill problem in Northern Ireland and EHS's failure to prosecute the offenders.

[3] (back) The Landfill Directive should have been implemented by 16 July 2001. The transposing regulations, the Landfill Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003, however, did not come into operation until 6 January 2004. In the intervening period landfill sites closed under the old Pollution Control and Local Government (Northern Ireland) Order 1978. The 1978 Order did not have the strict closure and aftercare requirements of the landfill Directive. Instead, landfill operators could simply hand in their licence to the local authority which issued it.

†To view PDF files you will need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader. Visually impaired users can get extra help with these documents from access.adobe.com.

Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland
7 Donegall Street Place
BELFAST
BT1 2FN
Tel: 028 9023 3488
Fax: 028 9024 7556
Email: foe-ni@foe.co.uk.

Published by Friends of the Earth Trust