Irish horticulture minister Trevor Sargent is leading the fight against a local authority plan for a landfill in north Dublin, one of the main centres of the country’s fresh produce industry.
In a submission to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is considering objections to the granting of a waste licence for the project, Sargent said there were serious concerns among growers that the landfill would contaminate local water supply and threaten crop production.
The dump, to be located near Lusk - an area known for field vegetables and potato growing - is being proposed by Fingal County Council, and would take 500,000 tonnes of non-hazardous waste a year, with the site also accommodating a public recycling facility. While Lusk is in Sargent’s parliamentary constituency, he has made it clear that his objections are being made “on national grounds”, in his role as horticulture minister.
It is unusual for ministers to voice objections to local authority plans at public hearings, but in a presentation to the EPA, Sargent, a former Irish Green Party leader, highlighted the importance of the horticulture sector to the national economy, and also to north Dublin, “which contains a very large proportion of the industry”.
He told the hearing that the proposal to locate a major landfill in the area posed serious risks for the industry. “The greatest potential threat is the loss of clean, safe water for crop irrigation and the post-harvest processing of produce,” he said. “The contamination of ground water and surface water would have an immediate and significant impact on crop production and the supply of food.”
Sargent, pictured above, added that growers were seriously concerned about the water contamination threat, and he warned: “It is of course vital that horticultural activity anywhere in the state, and particularly in this region of intensive cultivation close to the proposed landfill, should not be jeopardised in any way by environmental hazards.”
On the waste licence application, he advised the EPA that before making a decision, it must first be satisfied that emissions from the landfill would not cause damage to local crops or the environment. A decision on the licence is expected in May.
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