The controversial plan to develop a hazardous waste incinerator in north Kildare will be the subject of an oral hearing next month, An Bord Pleanala has indicated.
Thermal Waste Management Ireland (TWM) plans to build the incinerator at Boycetown on the outskirts of Kilcock. Kildare County Council rejected the company's application on 14 grounds but this was appealed by TWM. There were more than 6,000 objections to the plan to process 100,000 tonnes of hazardous waste a year at the facility.
The planning appeals authority is to stage the hearing over a number of days from January 24th at the Glenroyal Hotel in Maynooth, Co Kildare.
The company has proposed using a vitrification process which uses higher temperatures than other technologies and produces material which can be used in the construction sector. The technology is attracting increasing interest as it is claimed not to generate any landfill waste. The North Kildare/South Meath Alliance Against Incineration has rejected the technology on health grounds, claiming a risk of dioxin exposure from emissions and objecting to an incinerator less than half a mile from Kilcock.
The alliance yesterday said it welcomed the decision to stage a public hearing in view of the scale of the project, the environmental risks it would pose and planning legislation problems exposed by the TWM application. The alliance believes the absence of planning guidelines on the location of incinerators, known as waste-to-energy facilities, is a fundamental weakness in Irish law and it says scientific evidence would warrant locating them at least 10 km from schools.
TWM has stated its "commitment to exceeding and maintaining the highest possible standards as set down by the EU, the World Health Organisation and the EPA" to ensure the health of the people in the area. The EPA has accepted the need for an incinerator to process hazardous waste, much of which is exported at present.
The company has said it would provide the same air pollution control systems used at a large waste-to-energy facility in central Vienna, which were installed at the behest of the Austrian government. Emissions from the plant are independently checked daily and displayed for public inspection.
