The Protest Against Incineration

Saturday February 18, 2006 09:33

by Miriam Cotton

Cork Harbour Alliance for a Safe Environment are determined to prevent the incinerators proposed for Ringaskiddy. Despite recent government attempts to impose incineration on communities all over the country, there is now a growing national awareness that this solution to our waste problems is sheer lunacy. Anti-incinerator and other environmentally motivated groups are now joining forces to send a clear and unambiguous message to the government: stop taking us for fools.

Recent developments that CHASE are asking people to be aware of:

*The EPA has granted licences for TWO incinerators at Ringaskiddy – one for hazardous and industrial waste, and one for domestic waste (Nov 2005). That’s 215,260 tonnes of waste!

*Indaver is applying for a 33% increase in the size of its proposed incinerator in Co Meath, before building has even begun (Jan 2006).

*After strong lobbying by Indaver, planning regulations have been changed to allow incinerators to accept waste from outside their own regions.

*The Ringaskiddy and District Resdients’ Association are now seeking leave for a judicial review of the EPA’s decision to grant a licence for the two Ringaskiddy incinerators.

*In January 2005, a High Court judge found that there were significant grounds for a judicial review of the planning permission for the Ringaskiddy toxic waste incinerator, and theis case is expected to be hard in the near future.

Defiant in the face of the governments complete failure either to respond to the wishes of those who elect them, or to take account of the serious health and other consequences of incineration, CHASE are confident that this is a fight that will run and run. They say that more and more people are questioning both the wisdom of going down the incineration route and the Government’s and State’s liability to be responsible for incineration facilities.

Their most recent newsletter says that in a recent report in the Irish Times (16-01-06), reporter Mark Hennessy revealed that:

“The Department of the Environment spent 18 months trying to find ways to accommodate incinerator company Indaver’s objection to rules the prevented the transportation of rubbish over regional boundaries.”

The dishonesty with which the government is approaching this issue is clearly evident from the fact that Minister Roche subsequently changed the rules and facilitated the company. This is despite the fact that three consecutive Environment Ministers (Dempsey, Cullen, Roche) were unable to meet with CHASE, arguing that they were specifically excluded from interfering with or influencing the planning process.

CHASE believes that this fundamentally questions the Minister’s ability to do his job in an impartial manner and has called for his resignation. Their most recent newsletter quotes from a recent editorial in the Irish Examiner (05/01/06):

“We have shown that we can lead in environmental matters [smoking ban, platic bag levy] and we should have the confidence to consider carefully the broader remifications of waste disposal, so that the practices we implement are in the best interst of the Irish people.

We should consider this not just from an economic standpoint, but more importantly froma health perspective, in the full knowledge that the most healthy practices will ultimately be the most environmentally friendly.”

Visit the CHASE website for further information:

http://www.chaseireland.org/

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Comments (3 of 3)

Prime Time programme on Incineration

by Maggie

Sat Feb 25, 2006 18:34

Here is a link to the RTE Prime Time programme on incineration broadcast Thurs 23rd Feb.
http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/0223/primetime.html

New report highlights health risks of incineration

Wed Mar 01, 2006 14:25

Boydmaggie at hotmail dot com

A new report (Dec 2005) by the British Society of Ecological medicine concludes that waste incinerators contravene our basic human rights and "are, in reality, particulate generators, and their use cannot be justified now that it is clear how toxic and carcinogenic fine particulates are."
It recommends that "no further waste incinerators be built".

The wrong road.

by maire - CHASE

Sun Mar 05, 2006 18:02

There can be no doubt that Minister Roche is going down the wrong road with Incineration as a commercial business. The amount of landfill needed just to get rid of the ash created., makes it non viable.
Trying to smuggle in an obsessional point of view without wanting to have an explicit debate, has backfired totally, when one was forced on both Mr. Aherne of Indaver and Minister Roche on Prime Time when experts on health, warned they could not justify incineration on health grounds.
The Infrastructural Bill which Minister Roche hopes will cover Hazardous installations is the weapon he is seeking to immobilise democracy. Minister Roche already has asked for the expectation that he will be given the power to control Ireland's rich heritage under the 2004 National Monuments (Amendment) Act. Whatever the consequences for people living near incinerators his zealous impetus to forge ahead with it regardless of the effects on Health or the Environment boarders on the reckless.
www.chaseireland.org see experts opinion on health effects of incineration.

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The Protest Against Incineration

Comments (3 of 3)