Waste
plan needed, not incinerators - Cork
group
From:
ireland.com
Monday, 22nd September, 2003
A group campaigning against
the building of a toxic waste incinerator has called on the
Government to leave incineration "very firmly at the bottom of
the list" of waste-disposal options.
Cork Harbour Alliance for a Safe
Environment (CHASE) made its appeal as An Bord Pleanála prepares to hold an
oral hearing into a planning application for a commercial hazardous waste
incinerator in the Cork harbour
area.
The hearing into the application by Indaver
Ireland opens at the Neptune
Basketball Arena in Cork this
afternoon.
CHASE called on the
Government to "properly implement" the National Hazardous
Waste Management Plan and to put in place the infrastructure
needed for clean production and waste minimisation before
resorting to incineration.
It also asked the Government
to provide the funding to the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) to help industry make the change to cleaner production
methods.
"We are asking for nothing
new" said Ms Mary O'Leary, chairman of CHASE. "We just want
the Government to implement their own policy as it was
intended, first of all reducing and recycling our hazardous
waste, and leaving incineration very firmly at the bottom of
the list, only to be introduced after all the other options
have been exhausted.
"We need a moratorium now on
incinerators, such as the one being discussed this week by An
Bord Pleánala, to allow the cleaner waste management options a
chance to work."
The Cork
group has said it will take a case to the High Court and the European Court if
Indaver's appeal is successful.
In May this year, Cork county councillors
rejected a proposed contravention of the county development
plan that would have allowed the incinerator to be built on
the 30-acre site at Ringaskiddy.
Cork County Council refused
planning permission for the development in June, and Indaver
has appealed that refusal to An Bord Pleánala. Over 20,000
objections to the initial application were lodged with the
council.
Indaver, a Belgian firm, says
the first phase of the €93 million project would create 50
jobs and be operational by
2007.
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