A COURT heard that a farm site in Kilmallock that was being used as a dumping ground for rubble on a commercial scale had no licence to accept the waste.
An inspector who visited the site at Glenfield, Kilmallock, said that he found around 100 tonnes of waste rubble, plastic and electrical wiring on the land owned by Eamonn O’Mahony, but estimated there was around 600 tonnes more buried below ground.
Council engineer David France told the District Court in Kilmallock that after he observed a load of builder’s rubble being hauled from a site where work was being done on a local nursing home on July 10, 2020, he followed it to the farm site.
In a follow up inspection on August 13, 2020, he told the court, he observed “a significant amount of civic waste” consisting of plastic wires and concrete rubble – “stuff that pollutes as it deteriorates,” as he put it.
Mr France said that he saw a pit and shed under construction and around 100 tonnes of dumped material overground but “in an educated estimate, based on my experience as an engineer, there was about 600 tonnes underground”.
Judge Patricia Harney was told that the site was not a licensed waste disposal site.
The council had sent a written notice under the Waste Management Act to Mr O’Mahony, informing him that he would have to remove the waste and engage a licensed waste removal company to bring it to a site suitably licensed for its disposal.
He was to produce receipts for having this done, the court was told. Mr France said that “two receipts” had been produced to the council in respect of the proper removal of 27 tonnes of the waste but “this was just a fraction” of what was estimated to be on-site, the inspector said.
It had been agreed that Mr O’Mahony would have test holes drilled on the land and a report on the findings supplied.
Judge Harney asked the solicitor for the defence “do I take it that your client is trying to put his house in order?” and when she was told that was the case, the Judge put the matter back to November 11 for mention, to allow time for the required test holes to be drilled.
