COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF LUCAN/PALMERSTOWN/NORTH CLONDALKIN AREA COMMITTEE

Tuesday, May 25, 2021

QUESTION NO. 28

QUESTION: Councillor Alan Hayes

To ask the manager if he is aware of any issues in recent years of pollution entering the Mill race or River Liffey emanating from the old dump in the vicinity of Waterstown Park.

REPLY:

The site at Waterstown was used as an unlicensed landfill during the period 1983 to 1987 for disposal of municipal waste as well as solid inert waste from commercial and industrial sources. It was not an engineered landfill and does not have modern systems for the management of either leachate or landfill gas.  Local Authorities were mandated through the Waste Management (Certification of historic unlicensed waste disposal and recovery activity) Regulations, 2008 (S.I. No. 524 of 2008) to identify all historic landfills, to risk assess them and to register them in the EPA Section 22 Register. This registration process has been completed in the case of Waterstown landfill through the conducting of a site walkover, desktop study and collection of baseline data.

Following the initial registration of the site South Dublin County Council appointed an environmental consultant to carry out an environmental risk assessment of the site including screening for appropriate assessment, preparation of appropriate assessment and preparing of a recommendation for the remediation of the landfill at Waterstown.

 The overall project objectives at Waterstown Landfill were:

1. To confirm whether there are risks of landfill gas migration to bordering residential homes, and leachate migration to nearby surface water (River Liffey and Mill Race stream) and groundwater; and,
2. To regularise the Site by applying to the EPA for a Certificate of Authorisation in accordance with Waste Management (Certification of Historic Unlicensed Waste Disposal and Recovery Activity) Regulations 2008.

The scope of work carried out at Waterstown to date is as follows :

An environmental risk assessment has been carried out in the following 3 stages -

• Risk Assessment Methodology Tier 1: Conceptual Site Model, Risk Screening and Prioritisation (Qualitative Risk Assessment)
• Risk Assessment Methodology Tier 2: Site Investigations and Testing
• Risk Assessment Methodology Tier 3: Refinement of CSM and Quantitative Risk Assessment.

Conclusion and Recommendation of the Environmental Risk assessment:

• The surface water monitoring results did not show any clear evidence that the water quality in the River Liffey has been significantly impacted by the former landfill as concentrations were broadly similar both upstream and downstream of the site.
• The recommendation in terms of remediation is that we continue to carry out the environmental monitoring of the old landfill now used as a public park. The Council has applied for a Certificate of Authorisation for the site from the EPA.  This process stalled for a period of time however we have been informed recently that the processing of the application is now underway.