COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
MEETING OF ENVIRONMENT SPC
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
HEADED ITEM NO.
HEADED ITEM: E. Services
Survey of Dumping - update report
REPLY:
Report to Environment SPC on 4 February 2009.
Illegal dumping in the Dublin Mountains.
Historic Unregulated Waste Disposal Sites.
As reported to the SPC at meetings during the course of 2008 a ministerial directive under section 60 of the Waste Management Act 1996 was issued in 2005 requiring local authorities to establish an inventory and carry out risk assessments of all historic, unregulated waste disposal sites within their functional area. The EPA in 2007 subsequently produced a code of practice setting down guidelines for these risk assessments. The first phase of the risk assessment process has been completed. All sites have been identified, mapped and an initial risk assessment of each site has been carried out. As reported to the SPC in November 2008 these sites have been identified as Category 1, 2 or 3 in accordance with the CoP guidelines and assigned an initial risk rating of high, moderate or low as determined through risk assessment (see table below).
| Category / Risk | High | Moderate | Low |
| Category1 Those sites operated by a Local Authority without a waste licence under the Act between 15 July 1977 and prior to the coming into effect of the Waste Management Licensing Regulations 1997. | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Category 2 Those private waste disposal facilities that were in operation between 15 July 1977 and the coming into effect of the European Communities (Waste) Regulations on 31 March 1980. | 21 | 9 | 7 |
| Category 3 Those sites, both public and private, that were operational without a waste licence since the coming into operation of the Waste Management Licensing Regulations 1997 and those private waste facilities that were operational since the coming into effect of the European Communities (Waste) Regulations on 31 March 1980. | 0 | 0 | 25 |
In November 2008 proposals for further detailed assessment of the sites identified as potentially high risk were sought from five consultancy firms with recognised expertise in the area of environmental risk assessment of this nature. Those proposals were received on 19 December 2008. They have now been evaluated and a decision on how to proceed with a more detailed and intrusive investigation of each of those potentially high risk sites is now imminent having regard to the limitations of resources.
PURE (Protecting Uplands and Rural Environments)
PURE is a regional initiative working in conjunction with and part funded by the Dept of Environment, a number of local authorities including Wicklow County Council, South Dublin County Council, Dublin City Council, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council along with Coillte, National Parks & Wildlife Service, ESB and a number of non-statutory organisations represented by the Wicklow Uplands Council, environmental, tourism and recreational groups. PURE endeavours to stop incidents of fly tipping and illegal dumping in the Wicklow/Dublin upland regions through the following measures
- identification of those involved in dumping activities
- liaison with the local authority enforcement officers about illegal waste activities
- liaison with the EPA illegal dumping hotline on dumping matters
- clean up of dumping sites using own resources
- awareness campaigns, similar to Local Authority awareness campaigns, held throughout the uplands region.
South Dublin County Council’s enforcement, clean up and awareness activities.
The Environmental Services Dept has the following resources in place in the areas of enforcement, clean up and awareness.
- Seven litter wardens, with one of these assigned on a full time basis to an area which combines the uplands region along with part of Tallaght
- Five waste enforcement officers, dealing with environmental complaints as well as permitting and enforcement issues relating to sites including those in the uplands region
- A staff of 41 in the cleansing section engaged in removal of fly-tipped material around the County including the uplands region as requested by the litter warden for that area
- Two environmental awareness officers along with support staff engaged in a variety of awareness activities such as green schools campaigns etc and these also include the upland areas lying within the South Dublin County area.