Ballyguyroe Landfill Site one of EPA’s ‘poorest performing sites’

The Ballyguyroe Landfill Site at Kildorrery is one of four sites on the EPA’s National Priority List for the end of 2021. The site is on the list for issues around ‘the landfill’s gas and leachate management’.

‘Leachate’ is contaminated water or liquid that is created by the liquid trickling through a solid waste disposal site, accumulating contaminants, and moving into subsurface areas. A copy of the report on Ballyguyroe Landfill Site has been requested from the EPA.

The EPA uses the register of National Priority Sites to focus its enforcement effort at the worst performing sites. Sites that appear on the list are subject to an escalation of enforcement action by the EPA, up to and including legal action, suspension or revocation. Cork County Council have been contacted for details on their plans to bring the site up to the required standards.

FINES

At the close of 2021, four sites remained on the National Priority List, two of which are in Cork; the other being Timoleague Agri Gen Limited. The National Priority Sites List is produced by the EPA on a quarterly basis based on data for the previous 6 months.

In May last year, Cork County Council were fined €4,250 for six breaches at its Raffeen Landfill Site in East Cork. All six offences were committed in November and December 2019, and included one instance of discharging landfill leachate to the Monkstown Creek Estuary. Another two charges also related to the storage and collection of leachate.

In October 2020, the council was also found guilty and fined for breaches at its East Cork Landfill site, and several of these charges also related to the incorrect management of leachate at the site. The total fine was €17,500.