ALARM has been raised at City Hall that Mungret Irish Cement is to build a facility to convert waste to oil for the manufacture of cement, which, it is feared, could pose a danger to the environment.
Limerick County Council has granted permission to an application from the company for permission to proceed with the building of this facility but a licence from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is also required.
Chairman of Limerick City Council’s Environmental Committee, Cllr John Gilligan, drew the attention of City Hall officials to the issue when the co-ordinator of the Regional Waste Management office, Phillipa King, confirmed that the county council had approved the planning application submitted by Mungret Irish Cement.
When asked if burning waste in oxygen is the definition of incineration, Ms King agreed, and Cllr Gilligan responded that as chairman of the city’s environmental committee, the issue has raised a number of worrying factors.
“What kind of scrubber system is being put in place to clean the emissions and what are we going to do with the toxic ash left after incineration – years ago, on a visit to inspect an incinerator in Germany, I asked what they did with the toxic waste and was told “we bury it down a coal mine in Poland.
“Will there be a public enquiry – I was amazed to learn that permission has been given for incineration on the Dock Road as nobody had told us they were planning an incinerator just a mile down the river, which means that the prevailing winds will carry toxins into the city – this committee did not know of this and we now need to take a hard look at this, as it’s at our front door and we urgently need clarification”.
When contacted, Ms King, who earlier this week gave an update to the city’s environmental committee on the Regional Waste Management Plan, said that due to the rising cost of oil, the conversion of waste to oil as a fuel has been underway in Europe and the UK for the past six or seven years.
“Getting value for waste, rather than putting it in landfill, which is the bottom of the waste hierarchy, makes sense and the emissions involved at Mungret will have the same controls as in any plant.
She confirmed that a licence from the EPA is required and a period of public consultation will be entered into.
It was pointed out by City Hall executive, Caroline Curley, that the Cement Company did hold a public meeting in the South Court Hotel at the planning stage and there “had been no apparent problems.”
The committee is to invite Mungret Irish Cement to a meeting in City Hall to address the concerns raised.
Management was not available for comment when the company was contacted by the Limerick Post prior to going to press on Wednesday.
.
