Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 6 October 2009
961 Deputy Simon Coveney asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if all local authorities have completed the register of contaminated sites; if any local authorities have not done so, the action he will take to ensure compliance. [33249/09]
Amharc ar fhreagraA ministerial policy direction issued on 3 May 2005 in regard to compliance by local authorities with the requirements of section 22 of the Waste Management Acts to prepare an inventory and risk assessment of all non-licensed closed landfills where disposal or recovery activities have taken place. To assist local authorities in this process, the EPA has developed a dedicated web site. However the web site is not, and is not intended to be, a register of contaminated sites.
Under the Waste Management (Certification of Historic Unlicensed Waste Disposal and Recovery Activity) Regulations 2008 local authorities are obliged to identify and register by 30 June 2009 all closed unlicensed landfills which were operated by them during the period 15 July 1977 to 27 March 1997, i.e. in the period between the adoption of relevant EU requirements and their having full effect in Ireland through the waste licensing system now the statutory responsibility of the EPA. My Department understands from the EPA that all local authorities have complied with this registration requirement.
Local authorities are also required, under section 26(2) of the Acts, to identify and assess sites at which waste disposal activities were carried out that to a significant extent involved hazardous waste. The EPA in 2007 published a Code of Practice for Environmental Risk Assessment for Unregulated Waste Disposal Sites. The code provides the framework for local authorities to establish any environmental risk posed by such sites.
