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A DUBLIN COUNCILLOR has urged people to have their say on an application from the city council for a permit to dump in Dublin Bay.
Dublin City Council has made an application to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for a dumping at sea permit under the Dumping at Sea Acts 1996 – 2010.
Public consultation
Councillor Paul McAuliffe has urged Dubliners to have their say during the public consultation process, which ends on 31 January. He said:
Dublin Bay is an important amenity and any dumping of material must be considered carefully. The council officials believe that by dumping at sea it will reduce the HGV traffic and the resulting pollution. It will be for the EPA to decide but every effort must be made to ensure there is no long term impact on the Bay area.
Cllr McAuliffe said that a report was sent to all councillors from city officials, outlining that the bulk of the spoil material will be excavated material from inside the proposed Long Sea Outfall Tunnel, which is part of the Ringsend Wastewater Treatment Works Project.
Spoil
According to the city council’s letter to councillors, the tunnel shaft will be bored through bedrock underlying Dublin Bay. The spoil that will result from the excavations will consist of rock of varying sizes, with 70 per cent anticipated to be greater than 2mm in diameter.
It said that during the planning for the Ringsend wastewater treatment works extension projects, the disposal of this material “was fully addressed in accordance with the EU Waste Hierarchy”.
It said that it could not find a realistic option to reuse the material, and that because of this it is currently proposed that the material be disposed of in licensed landfill facilities in the greater Dublin/Leinster area, for which approval has been received from An Bórd Pleanála.
If the material is disposed of by landfill, it will be brought by HGV, and it is estimated there will be 100,000 truck journeys to and from the site.
Dublin City Council has attempted to minimise the impact of this by restricting the hours of operation of HGVs and mandating that the Dublin Port Tunnel/M50 be used as the disposal route.
The two main reasons why Dublin City Council is now considering the disposal of the material at sea are to avoid the impact of the HGV movements on the local and wider community, and to provide cost savings to the taxpayer on the project’s cost.
The area where the spoil would be deposited is an existing spoil ground east of Burford Bank, which is already being used for the disposal of maintenance dredged material. Dublin City Council believes the disposal at sea option is of lower environment impact than landfill. The EPA will determine this following the public consultation.
To find out more, visit the Dublin City Council and EPA websites.
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It’s a pity FF gave the city manager the power to do this in the first place . I do agree with the Cllr when he says that the people of Dublin need to have their say here . Unfortunately it won’t make a difference . Look what happened with the bin privatisation ! The city manager has all the power on the council thanks to our previous administration.
Of course the City Manager should have that power – it is his job to manage the city after all. Cop onto yourself and do something constructive instead of blaming previous administrations
With an appointed manager running the show and barely consulting the elected councillors where’s the democracy?
@steve,and your political party is?
@steve.no need to answer your worse than ff your lab the ones who are complete liars.Its good to know neither lab/fg will see any seats local or government again..crawl back under your rock
As long as the rubbish stays in Dublin. You create it. You keep it.
suppose we’ll keep everything else that’s made in dublin then
That’s a stupid comment. The waste is coming from a tunnel bore its not created by the people.
As its bed rock it should be used to fill back in quarry’s. it will help put them back to original status.
According to RTÉ news, every man, woman and child in Dublin contributes €3,700 more towards the running of the country than they get back, that’s reversed in the midlands, west and south-east. Even the home tax is biased against Dublin, where houses are more expensive -that money is being spread around the country so that local services in the midlands, west and south-east are being funded from the same source, not from the €90 average home tax paid there but from the €300+ Dublin and Cork averages. You’re living in beautiful countryside subsidised by us. You’re welcome.
They’re not dumping rubbish here lads, just moving a few rocks around
Alan it’s not rock. It’s ground rock more like sand but as its ground it contains hazardous materials that would normally be locked onto the rock.
It’ll destroy diving in the bay and harmful to marine life
Ues the material to reclaim land from the sea.
Brian you’re speaking nonsense. Nobody dives in the Burford bank, it’s the Dublin bay dumping ground for the 4 harbour authorities. It’s miles from any designated protected area.
The dumping at sea act only allows for uncontaminated material to be dumped at sea. If the stuff is contaminated then it has to be disposed/treated on land.
It’s a pity they can’t use the spoil locally but transporting a million lorries of rock across Dublin to the countryside isn’t good environmental practice.
We literally have a HUGE hole in the centre of monaghan town that needs to be filled, town council was going to build a underground carpark and ran out of money a few years ago… now they’re buying rock from a local quarry to fill it!
Is this a joke ?
yes mark this is joke,just for u
You should fill in the hole with a few of the councillor’s
Could it be of any use for the planned Dublin docks extension I wonder..
have your say