The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has granted a licence to Fingal County Council to develop a 300,000-tonne a year capacity “super dump” near Lusk in north Co Dublin.
The EPA said it is satisfied that the operation of the facility, in accordance with the conditions of the licence, will not adversely affect human health or the environment, and will meet all relevant national and EU standards.
The Labour Party has slammed the decision however describing the dump as a “monstrosity”.
The licence contains more than 250 individual conditions and sub-conditions relating to the environmental management, operation, control and monitoring of the facility.
The conditions require, amongst other things, that only residual waste (waste which has been pre-treated) may be landfilled at the facility and that additional odour controls be introduced.
Fingal County Council had applied for a 500,000-tonne dump until the Poolbeg incinerator was constructed, but An Bord Pleanála limited the intake of the facility to 300,000 tonnes.
The dump will have an associated public recycling facility.
The EPA said that it will be reviewing the licence prior to the acceptance of waste at the facility, to further reduce the amount of biodegradable waste going to this landfill in accordance with the Landfill Directive.
Reacting to the news local Labour Party Senator Brendan Ryan has said he is “appalled” at the decision to grant a licence for the super dump “which would be one of the biggest of its kind in Europe.”
"At the time of the Bord Pleanála approval last October, I stated that it was difficult to understand the logic of the decision, given that the dump has the potential to render unsuitable a large fresh-water source (aquifer), which has been identified beneath the landfill footprint, while expensive plans are afoot to pipe water from the West of Ireland to Dublin to offset predicted water shortages in the Greater Dublin Area.
"I had hoped that an organisation such as the EPA would have come up with a different result to this, and that they might have put greater weighting on the aquifer aspect of the proposal, but unfortunately they have not.
“I will continue to support the residents in their battle against this monstrosity and the establishment who from the outset have been intent on proceeding at this location notwithstanding the justified concerns of the local community and the local food producers,” he added.