COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
MEETING OF ENVIRONMENT SPC
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
HEADED ITEM NO.
HEADED ITEM: E. Services
Minutes of Environment SPC Meeting 6th February 2008
REPLY:
In attendance:
Members
Councillor T. McDermott (Chair)
Councillor C. King
Councillor M. Murphy
Councillor E. Maloney
Councillor G. O’Connell
Councillor E. Walsh
Ms. C. Kiernan
Officials
P. Poole, Director of Environmental Services
J. Quinlivan, Senior Executive Officer
M.Coleman, Senior Executive Officer
D.Finch, Senior Engineer
L.Magee, Senior Engineer
T.Moyne,Senior Engineer
M.Ni Dhomhnaill, Environmental Awareness Officer
C.Hinch, Assistant Environmental Awareness Officer
P.Moffat, Senior Staff Officer
Apology for inability to attend was received from Mr B. Buckley, Greyhound Waste.
An Cathaoirleach, Councillor T. McDermott presided.
H-I (1) Minutes
The minutes of the Environmental SPC meeting held on 2nd November 2007 were proposed by Cllr. Mc Dermott, seconded by Cllr Guss O’Connell and Agreed
H-I (2) Matters Arising
It was noted that there were no matters arising from minutes.
H-I (3) Presentation on dumping in the Dublin mountains -PURE.
An Cathaoirleach welcomed Mr Ian Davis a representative from PURE which is a partnership project incorporating the local authorities of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, Wicklow County
Council, South Dublin County Council, Dublin City Council, Coillte, the National Parks and Wildlife Service the ESB and a number of non statutory organisations in a joint endeavour to prevent incidents of illegal dumping in the Wicklow/Dublin upland regions.
A powerpoint presentation on the work done by PURE was given by Mr Davis (PURE). His presentation illustrated the initiatives being undertaken to protect the upland areas and the problems being experienced in implementing these initiatives. Examples of illegal dumping which PURE deals with were shown. The following initiatives were also outlined
(i) An educational programme was outlined which is designed to assist other environmental educational programmes such as Green Schools etc.
(ii) A Primary Schools Teachers Pack was developed.
(iii) A public awareness campaign being is organised and promotional material was displayed
(iv) An information leaflet with a detachable card which shows the lo-call phone number which members of the public can use to report dumping etc
(v) A lo call phone number 1850 365121 which is being promoted to encourage members of the public to report any illegal dumping and littering.
(vi) The use of CCTV in combating illegal dumping
Statistics for 2007 were shown as follows.
447 reports of illegal dumping on the lo call phone line
487 reports received in the PURE office
Following contributions from Cllr M. Murphy, Cllr G. O’Connell, Cllr E. Walsh and Ms.C. Kiernan Mr Davis answered a number of questions from the members. The Committee members expressed their appreciation of the excellent work being done by PURE. An Cathaoirleach Cllr. McDermott thanked Mr Davis for his attendance and for his presentation.
Following on from the discussion Cllr Mc Dermott made the following proposal to the SPC:-
“That the Environment SPC, being concerned that the integrity of the South Dublin Mountains as a leisure and recreation amenity is under threat from legal and illegal dumping, request the Manager to present a report to the next Environment SPC meeting including:
1. An inventory of the location, capacity by material type and duration of current licensed dumps and landfill sites including authorised land reclamation.
2. A review the number and nature of complaints and reports received by South Dublin County Council in the last 3 years.
3. The number, duration and nature of outstanding enforcement and compliance orders relating to dumping and suspected illegal landfills.
4. The impact of dumping on rivers, streams and roads.
5. Any other relevant information.
For this exercise the South Dublin Mountains include those portions of the county above the 110m contour.”
The Committee agreed and the report is to be brought to the next meeting.
H-I (4) Litter Management Plan:
It was agreed to defer discussion on the Draft Litter Management Plan until the next meeting of the Committee in order to give members further opportunity to examine the contents of the document.
H-I (5) Climate Change Submission – Group update
Maire Ni Dhomhnaill, Environmental Awareness Officer gave a presentation on Climate Change. She stated that arrangements had been made to meet with CODIMA, the company which had been employed by Dublin City Council in a similar capacity. This meeting has been scheduled for late February and it is proposed to arrange a meeting between CODEMA and members of the sub – group of the Committee before the next meeting of the SPC. In the meantime an awareness programme has
been planned for the SPC members during ECO Week which is the week beginning 14th April. Arrangements have also been made for members of the Committee to see the film ‘An Inconvenient
Truth’ at the UCI Cinema , Tallaght. Details of the date/time etc will be forwarded to the members as soon as possible.
H-I ( 6) Greater Dublin Strategic Drainage Study (GDSDS) SEA – briefing
The following report which had been circulated was noted;
‘Fingal County Council is the lead authority for the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of the Greater Dublin Strategic Drainage Study (GDSDS).
The public consultation period concluded on the 4th January 2008 with 28 submissions in total being received. The Consultants are currently assessing the submissions and are proposing to have a detailed submissions report in addition to a final Draft Environmental Report available on or before the 26th February 2008. The Steering Group will meet on the 6th March 2008 to discuss the final draft report and the submissions report.
The final stage in the SEA process is the preparation of an SEA Statement, which summarises how the SEA process influenced the GDSDS. It is intended to present the SEA Statement to a joint SPC when it is available.’
A briefing on the Study was given by Tom Moyne, Senior Engineer. Following contributions from Cllr T. McDermott and Cllr G. O’Connell Mr. Moyne replied to the queries raised.
It was agreed that a separate joint meeting of the Environment SPCs of all the local authorities involved should be held to consider the Final Environmental Report and SEA Statement.
H-1 (7) Major Water Source Scheme – SEA
The following report which had been circulated was noted;
‘Dublin City Council is carrying out long term planning studies, on behalf of 8 local authorities, into how best to provide adequate supplies of drinking water for the estimated 2.5 million people expected to be living in the Greater Dublin Area by 2031.
The Greater Dublin Area includes the administrative area of Dublin City and the three other Dublin local authorities, along with parts of County Wicklow, Co. Meath and Co. Kildare. It is estimated that the average water requirements for the Greater Dublin Area is 550 million litres a day today and will rise to around 800 million litres per day by 2031. Peak requirements at 2031 are estimated at 880 million litres per day.
The Greater Dublin Area currently gets its water from the Rivers Liffey, Vartry and Dodder. The environmentally sustainable production of water from existing Greater Dublin Area sources will not be sufficient to meet the increased demand of the larger projected population. Water supplies from a new source that will augment supplies from all the existing water sources will be required by 2015/6.
Otherwise, water shortages and curtailment of economic growth will be unavoidable.
RPS Consulting Engineers and Veolia Water were appointed to examine a range of different options for a new major water supply source for the Great Dublin Area. They identified two main possibilities that require a lot more study and extensive consultation with all stake holders; 1) a major desalination plant on the east coast and 2) abstraction of water from the River Shannon, transporting it by pipeline to the Greater Dublin Area, supplying populations along the route.
Current European and Irish legislation required Dublin City Council to undertake a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of the technically feasible options. The SEA process involved the production of an Environmental Report to assess the options at a strategic level. Consultation with Local Authorities, 10 statutory bodies, 5 non-statutory bodies and the Shannon River Basin District Advisory Council representing an additional 40/50 organisations took place between June and October 2006 and the results were fed into the SEA process.
In November 2006, following consideration of the Environmental Report and of the extensive stakeholder feedback from the public consultation process, Dublin City Council adopted the findings of the SEA in respect of the need for a new source and required further studies to be carried out on the technically feasible options.
Phase 2 of the SEA process will continue in 2008 with extensive public consultation which should result in an SEA Statement at the end of 2008.
Further information in relation to the project is available on Dublin City Council website:’
A briefing on the report was given by Tom Moyne, Senior Engineer by means of a powerpoint presentation. The presentation illustrated the history and background to the current Major Water Source Scheme Plan.
Following contributions from Cllr T. McDermott, Cllr E.Maloney. Cllr G. O’Connell, Ms. C. Kiernan, Cllr M. Murphy, Mr Moyne replied to the issues raised
An Cathaoirleach Cllr. T. McDermott thanked Mr Moyne for his detailed presentation.
H-I (8) Any other Business:- Filling of Vacancy
It was noted that Cllr. Colm Brophy had been approved by the Council to replace Cllr Stanley Laing on the Committee.
The meeting concluded at 7pm.
Signed: _______________________ Date: ___________
Cllr T. McDermott
Cathaoirleach