The proposal to build a hazardous waste incinerator in Co Kildare has exposed a shortcoming in planning legislation whereby there are no Irish guidelines on locating such facilities, it has been claimed.
This emerged last night at a meeting in Maynooth attended by more than 500 people opposed to the incinerator planned for less than half a mile from Kilcock. A representative of the North Kildare/South Meath Alliance Against Incineration confirmed they had consulted legal experts after this lacuna in the law emerged, and had drawn up a bill with a view to ensuring proper guidelines.
This had been put to the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, according to alliance spokesman, Mr Mark Teevan. The alliance has proposed that incinerators not be located within 10 km of a school.
Representatives of other waste-management companies outlined their technologies to the meeting. They included Green Sunrise, an Irish company which has the first hazardous waste-treatment facility to be licensed by the Environmental Protection Agency. It involves a closed chemical process which is claimed not to create the kind of emissions which may be associated with incinerators.
a special form of ionised gaseous matter that conducts electricity and breaks down hazardous compounds has shown the ability to safely and economically process and remediate wastes, said Mr Karl Hale of Startech Environmental Corporation in the US told the meeting.
A spokeswoman for Thermal Waste Management Ireland, which plans to build the incinerator, said yesterday it would incorporate vitrification, a melting down process which produces material that could be used in the construction sector. She said the technology did not create any landfill waste nor any residues.
