Retired Waste Firm Director Jailed Over Environmental Breaches At Kerdiffstown Landfill

Friday, 9 June 2023 15:45

By Caoimhe Harney

Close to €61 million of public money has since been spent to remediate the site

The retired director of a waste management company - who was convicted over the illegal operation of a landfill site in Kerdiffstown - has been been sentenced to three years in jail at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, with the final 12 months of the sentence suspended.

70 year- old, Tony Dean, from Woodhaven, Milltown in Dublin was found guilty by a jury last November of three offences contrary to the Waste Management Act 1996, in a case led by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Passing sentence today Judge Melanie Greally said this prosecution had been taken on the basis of neglect, with waste in one part of the site in Kerdiffstown in Co Kildare having covered 150,000 cubic metres of land, rising to 116 metres above sea level.

This had resulted in odours from landfill gas and volumes of leachate that percolated into water in the surrounding environment, leading to complaints from nearby residents.

Almost €61 million of public money has since been spent to remediate the site.

That includes €11.5m which was spent in the aftermath of a fire there in 2011, although the fire was not linked to the activities of Nephin Trading Ltd, which had ceased its responsibility for the site at that stage and eventually went into liquidation.

Kildare County Council was granted a licence to remediate the site in 2011.

In a previous sentence hearing the court heard from the EPA that 50 cubic metres of leachate had been produced from the site per day over the period concerned and had slowly made its way into the surrounding geology.

There had been 188 complaints about odours from the site.