Wicklow County Council has acknowledged it has listed 88 illegal dump sites of which 19 have yet to be examined.
In a report to councillors on the progress of the investigation into illegal dumping in the county, the county manager, Mr Eddie Sheehy, said yesterday that a large number of staff were deployed on the investigation and the council had engaged the services of environmental consultants, a barrister and a senior counsel.
Mr Sheehy also said that the council had secured a permanent order in the High Court against a landowner at Coolnamadra against dumping on the man's lands. The case against him was continuing.
In another case of breaches of the Waste Management Act, the council had secured a conviction and jail sentence against Mr Andrew Phibbs of Blessington, although it was acknowledged this was being appealed.
Mr Sheehy confirmed that a bill for more than €1 million had been received yesterday morning from Mr John Reilly of Whitestown quarry near Baltinglass. Mr Sheehy criticised the bill which, he said, was in respect of 69,000 tonnes of council waste which was allegedly dumped in the quarry, going back 20 years.
He wished all council creditors would wait 20 years before issuing their invoices. He also said reports that this represented domestic waste were incorrect. He said in the past inert material from road improvements might have been dumped there.
He was "deeply cynical" of the bill which would not divert the council from its course.
In the report to council, it was said there were four sites in south and west Wicklow currently under investigation.
These were at Hempstown, Blessington; Coolnamadra near Baltinglass; Whitestown near Baltinglass and at Aughrim.
Allegations of serious dumping had been made at other locations at Whitestown, at Blessington and at Russborough, all in west Wicklow. The council noted that these sites had yet to be investigated.
"Historic" large sites which had been notified to the council in the past included a site at Kilmurray near Kilmacanogue, which had been granted a waste licence by the Environmental Protection Agency, although the report did not specify whether the facility had planning permission.
It also referred to a landfill at Killegar near Enniskerry which had enjoyed planning permission and permits for dry, not toxic , non-hazardous waste.
The landfill was the subject of a section 55 enforcement notice last year and its compliance is currently being reassessed. Photographs given to The Irish Times indicated that barrels of the chemical methylene chloride were dumped there in the 1980s.
The council noted that since September 2001, it had received "a small number of complaints in relation to new additional (sic) sites".
