Incinerators lay pollution waste (upd)

Letter to the Editor; Sunday Times; 19.7.2020

Incinerators lay pollution waste 

With regard to your report “Meath incinerator seeks to double hazardous waste capacity” (News, July 5) the identity of the “hazardous waste” is not fully known.

Furthermore, the system in place for monitoring gas emissions and other by-products (heavy metals?) raises doubts as to whether it can properly monitor pollutants in real time, and make the data publicly available on a continuous basis. Cross-contamination of water and the food chain cannot be excluded, given the limited data. Without this information in place, how can the Environmental Protection Agency grant an operational permit? Furthermore, the “Trojan horse” process by which polluters can apply for incineration licences and return later to apply for significant increases in gross tonnages, and the right to burn new types of hazardous waste, effectively allows them to evade scrutiny.

CRH in Platin was originally granted a licence to incinerate 120,000 tons of waste. Their latest application would increase this to 600,000, with significant increases in the proportion of hazardous materials.

Claire Keating, Derek O’Dwyer, Ioannis Zabetakis, Limerick

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here is the full letter as sent to ST.

Letter to the Editor -   Sunday Times

                                                                                                                                 Limerick, 14^th July 2020

Dear Sir,

With regard to the report of Colin Coyle “Meath incinerator seeks to double hazardous waste capacity” Sunday Times 5.7.2020, we would like to highlight the following points:

1.       The identity of “hazardous waste” is not fully known at the time of application for permit.

2.       The monitoring system of gas emissions and other by-products (heavy metals?) that is in place raises some doubts around its efficacy to properly monitor pollutants in real time and make these data publicly available on a continuous basis.

3.       Possible cross-contamination of water (inland or sea) and the food chain can not be excluded given the limited data known at the time of application. Without this information in place, how can EPA grant operational permit?

4.       Lastly, there is clear conflict in how incineration (and any other possibly polluting) processes are monitored across EU. In all member states, the authority with responsibility for granting the operational permit (license) is the same authority that monitors the legal operation of the facility.  In Ireland’s case, it’s the EPA. This effectively prevents the EPA from effectively applying “the polluter pays” principle which dictates that the polluter has to pay the full amount to compensate total environmental damage (in case, for example, of a possible leak of heavy metals).

5.       Furthermore, the “Trojan Horse” process by which polluters can apply for incineration licenses and return later to apply for significant increases in gross tonnages and rights to burn new types of hazardous waste allows polluters to evade scrutiny and mask legitimate public concerns on their longer-term intentions. For example, CRH in Platin were originally granted a license to incinerate 120,000 tonnes of waste. Their latest application would increase this to 600,000 tonnes per annum with significant increases in the proportion of hazardous materials.

Sincerely,

Claire Keating, Derek O’Dwyer

Limerick Against Pollution, Limerick

and Ioannis Zabetakis, Lecturer, Univ. of Limerick

P.S. Hong Kong incineration plans blasted by Prof Paul Connett - who advocates Zero Waste

Meath incinerator seeks to double hazardous waste capacity

Locals opposed the Duleek plant before it opened in 2011 (photo Sunday Times)

[Sunday Times, 5/7/2020]
@colincoyle

Indaver’s incinerator in Duleek, Co Meath, which was bitterly opposed by local residents before it opened in 2011, has applied for permission to increase the amount of waste it treats from 235,000 to 250,000 tonnes, more than doubling the amount of hazardous waste from 10,000 tonnes to 25,000 tonnes.

In documents submitted to An Bord Pleanala as part of the application, Indaver said: “The amount of hazardous waste accepted has reached over 9,000 tonnes per annum and, in the absence of other suitable treatment facilities currently in Ireland for these wastes, there is a need to extend the capacity.”

It said this increase in capacity would be in line with the EPA’s national hazardous waste plan, which requires treatment for up to 50,000 tonnes of hazardous waste in Ireland every year. The overall increase in waste capacity would allow for the acceptance of more liquid waste, it said.

Ged Nash, a local Labour TD, said the plan to more than double the amount of hazardous waste going into the incinerator was “extremely worrying”. He said the proposal would be challenged by the local community.

“We need a national rethink on policy relating to incineration if we are to meet binding EU targets on recycling,” he said. “Figures published last year by the European Commission showed that the proportion of household waste generated since 2008 that was sent to incinerators like Carranstown [in Duleek] shot up from 16% to 29%, with only a small increase recorded for recycling.”

Alongside its increase in capacity, Indaver said it would build an aqueous waste tank farm to deal with liquid waste and a hydrogen generation unit. This unit would use the steam that would otherwise be destroyed in the plant’s air cooled condenser to generate hydrogen from water. The energy generated could either be fed into the natural gas network or used to power hydrogen-powered waste vehicles.

The application also seeks extra storage of bottom ash and an increase in the size of the plant’s warehouses, workshops, office buildings and parking facilities. The Belgian-owned company claims these proposals are in line with EU and national policies. It claims the increase in hazardous waste capacity “fulfils the objectives of self-sufficiency and proximity and reduces the reliance on export and associated environmental benefit of avoiding the transport of hazardous waste over longer distances through export to Europe”.