€200million-That’s what is could cost to clear up mess

July 2002

THE clean-up of the illegal dump at Coolnamadra, Donard, could come with a price tag of up to €20 million, Wicklow County Council has told the High Court. In the first day of its case against landowner Clifford Fenton and Swalcliffe Ltd., trading as Dublin Waste, its managing director Louis Moriarty and his wife, Eileen Moriarty, the court was told that the land is contaminated with about 8,000 tonnes of material. The court heard that Fenton had agreed to the dumping but said that he did not know the material contained hazardous waste.

The waste company will argue that the hospitals should not have put hazardous waste in their skip. The two acre site on the banks of a tributary of the River Slaney contained bloodstained bandages, used incontinence pads,body fluids,needles, laboratory waste, gas cylinders and documents concerning consultant doctors and patients.

James Connolly SC for the county council explained that to clear the site by incineration would cost up to €20million.Land filling the waste would cost €3 million. Monitoring would also have to be put in place at an extra cost of €20,000 a year.