Remediation planned for flaming landfill

The Irish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said the Kerdiffstown landfill site near Naas.

Before a fire, which engulfed the site earlier this week, the EPA called in SKM Enviros to look at how to shut down the site.

According to the EPA the report was commissioned following legal actions it took against the operators of the Kerdiffstown site.

The report, which can be viewed here, was completed in October 2010.

The agency also commissioned a hydrogeological evaluation of the site using geophysical surveys and this work was finished only last month.

Based on the report, the preferred remediation option of the EPA is a lined and fully engineered landfill on site and deposition of the waste in that landfill which would be closed, capped and managed, with leachate and gas management and appropriate landscaping.

Preliminary estimates for this option are in the region of Euro 30 million, however the agency pointed out final costs would not be known until the detailed plan is complete.

A spokesman for the agency said: “We have now considered this work and the reports from our own inspectors.

“The agency is committed to a plan which will provide for the site to be remediated to meet EU and national standards as set out in the landfill directive and in licensing decisions of the Agency.

“Once that remediation plan is developed, the agency will oversee the remediation of the site in cooperation with the local authority, local residents and other relevant agencies.”

Short term measures to be undertaken include:

* Making the site secure (security is now in place)

* Removal of ad-hoc stockpiles of waste from the site (in progress)

* Pumping out leachate from lined cells, and

* Preparation of a detailed scoping and design of the remediation of the Kerdiffstown site.

Luke Walsh