Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 10 Dec 1991

Vol. 414 No. 4

Written Answers. - Dumping at Sea.

Proinsias De Rossa

Ceist:

34 Proinsias De Rossa asked the Minister for the Marine if he will list (1) the Irish based companies currently licensed to dump industrial waste at sea and (2) the amounts and the types of waste in each case; if any timetable has yet been worked out with these companies to cease dumping in accordance with the terms of the decision taken by the Oslo Commission; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

Minister for the Marine (Mr. Wilson)

The Government's Environment Action Programme, launched in January 1991, announced the Government decision to ban all dumping at sea of industrial wastes from 31 December 1995. This accords with the decision of the Oslo Commission, taken in Dublin in June of 1989, to cease the dumping of industrial waste in the North Sea by 31 December 1989 and in the rest of the Oslo Convention area by 31 December 1995, unless it could be shown that there were no practical alternatives for disposal on land and the wastes caused no harm to the marine environment.

The three Irish based companies which have been authorised to dump industrial waste at sea expect to have switched to land-based disposal by the end of 1992. Details of recent dumping operations by those companies are as follows.

ADM Ringaskiddy are authorised to dump the waste from their own plant and that of Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Production Corporation at a site off the coast of County Cork. The company dump the greatest quantity (99 per cent) of industrial waste from Ireland at sea and is currently authorised to dump up to 750,000 tonnes per annum. A new land-based treatment plant is currently receiving waste. The treatment is by anaerobic bacterial digestion and results in release of methane gas which is used in the company's manufacturing processes. It is intended that the dumping of the waste at sea will be phased out progressively during 1992 as the plant's digestion capacity increases.

Wyeth (Ireland) Limited are authorised to dump up to 3,300 tonnes per annum of sludge effluent arising from the manufacture of infant food at a site in the Shannon Estuary. The company's proposed alternative means of waste disposal involves drying and concentration of sludge for use as a fertiliser.

Irish Refining plc. dump about 1,300 tonnes of spent caustic waste every two years at the industrial dump site off Cork harbour. The waste is in liquid form and is stored in a tank until a load sufficient for dumping is accumulated. The company last dumped the waste in March 1990 and have since selected an acid neutralisation system as a suitable treatment alternative which they hope will be installed and operational during 1992.

The companies are obliged under the permits granted to carry out sampling and analyses of the waste at regular intervals. The results are checked and monitored by the Department. In addition, the dumping operations are regularly inspected by my Department's engineers.

A study of the Cork dump site was carried out in 1988 and confirmed that there were no adverse environmental impacts in the vicinity of the dump site. The report of the study concluded as follows:

The REMOTS reconnaissance survey of the industrial dump site confirmed the findings of the previous surveys. It reaffirmed that there was little physical disturbance of the seabed, which was colonised by a fauna characteristic of an unstressed habitat. It was thus concluded that the area was one of high habitat quality.