Irish Independent - 04-01-06
Incinerator firm plans to increase capacity by 33pc
Treacy Hogan, Environment Correspondent

THE owners of the country's first approved mega incinerator have applied for permission to increase the amount it burns - before the facility is even built.

Indaver Ireland has asked to be allowed burn up to 200,000 tonnes of household and domestic rubbish every year at Carranstown, near Duleek, Co Meath.

The company wants to be allowed to process 33pc more waste than the 150,000 tonnes allowed under the terms of the licence granted to it by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last November. Much of it will come from outside the northeast region fuelling fears that the incinerator will end up burning most of the nation's rubbish.

A strict condition of Indaver's original planning permission was that the waste must only originate from counties Meath, Louth, Cavan and Monaghan.

However, an Indaver spokesperson pointed out that waste collectors in these counties would also be collecting rubbish from other counties and under the planning permission they would not be able to accept it.

Louth councillor Gerald Nash (Labour) reacted angrily to the new Indaver application.

As Mayor of Drogheda last year he represented the members of Drogheda Borough Council at an oral hearing that granted a waste management licence to operate the plant last March.

"I predicted some time ago that Indaver already had plans to expand the Carranstown plant before the facility is built and operational.

"I also predicted that, within a year or two, the company would decide to extend the plant to allow it to take waste not just from the four counties, but possibly from the rest of the country.

"Indaver's plans for Carranstown will continue to be resisted by the people of the area," he said.

Should permission be granted, the incinerator will be burning 50,000 tonnes more than originally approved and this will include waste coming from outside the region.

"Waste collectors can collect in other counties and we wouldn't have been able to take it," said the Indaver spokesperson.

The company announced yesterday that it is to lodge a new planning application with Meath County Council for its yet unbuilt incinerator at Carranstown.

The company received approval from An Bord Pleanala for the original planning application in March 2003.

The company says the decision to seek enlargement was taken in line with the Proposed Replacement Waste Management Plan for the northeast. Other changes include a revised layout of the facility and new design features.