Oxigen’s waste plant on the Coes Road in Dundalk was the second most complained about dump in the country in 2013, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
In total there were 547 complaints throughout the year, with 81 of them concerning the Dundalk plant.
Only Ballynagran in Wicklow had a higher number of complaints with 140.
The vast majority of complaints related to bad odours, which were likened to rotten eggs as gases escaped from dumps.
Last April Oxigen were prosecuted and fined €1,000 at Dundalk District Court following an EPA investigation following complaints about offensive odours in the vicinity of their Coes Road facility. The company also paid the EPA’s legal and inspection costs of €9,000.
Residents from the likes of Bay Estate, Hyde Park, Belfry Gardens and Meadow Grove had all complained about the issue with former councillor Martin Bellew, who lives in the area, telling a meeting of Dundalk Town Council last year that people attending the previous October’s St Gerard’s Novena in St Joseph’s Redemptorist Church had to run to their cars after one of the Masses because of how strong the smell was.
The company and its director Aidan Doyle pleaded guilty to a summons under the Waste Management Act, which related to October 24th 2012.
The court was told the smell coming from the plant was caused by the stockpiling of brown-bin waste in a building at the plant, with the odours breaching the terms of Oxigen’s licence from the EPA.
An inspector visited the site on numerous occasions recently and found that the problem had now been resolved.
In December 2013 the company were also fined €2,500 for breaching their waste collection permit in a case that was taken against them by Louth County Council and the EPA following a number of complaints to the local authority about a strong smell from their facility.
As well as the €2,500 fine, the waste recycling company will also have to pay costs of €1,100 on top of that after being found guilty of breaching the condition of their waste licence by mixing dry recyclable waste and domestic waste.
Their failure to separate these waste types led to a breach of their permit, the court heard at the time.
Commenting on the report, Gerard O’Leary, Director of EPA’s Office of Environmental Enforcement said: “There is a need for waste operators to improve environmental compliance by tackling priority areas such as odour management and waste handling. Residents living near waste facilities should not be subject to odour nuisance. The EPA will continue to take strong enforcement action to tackle these priority areas.”
