Rathcabbin site clearance is under way

After years of unrest and stress to the residents of Rathcabbin and its surrounds, work commenced before Christmas on the removal of waste from the highly controversial Shannon Vermicomposting site situated at Coolross.

Shannon Vermicomposting commenced operating a compost facility in Rathcabbin, with a waste permit issued in 2002 by North Tipperary County Council for a vermicomposting facility. The company was the subject of court proceedings in 2005, which they lost because of leaving material stockpiled on concrete slabs and adjacent lands, covered with plastic and secured with tyres of all shapes and sizes.

In 2005, permission for the retention and completion of a waste material reception and mixing bay area for the processing of organic and domestic waste into vermicompost was refused by North Tipperary County Council.

Later, An Bord Pleanála refused a company appeal against that decision. The board ruled that having regard to the nature and scale of the proposed waste facility, the development would constitute an unacceptable risk of pollution, which would seriously injure the amenities in the area.

Locals welcomed the decision at that time as the company, which used worms to process waste into compost, had been the subject of local hostility. The operation in Coolross was causing a foul odour to emanate from the plant. Villagers and people living in the surrounding areas were worried about possible risks to their health and of water pollution and were objecting to the traffic volumes entering and leaving the site also.

They organised protests and marched on the offices of North Tipperary County Council and the Mid-Western Health Board in a bid to highlight the situation. The council was successfully granted an interlocutory injunction against Shannon Vermicomposting and its director, Peter Ogg, under the Waste Management Planning and Development Acts. Mr Ogg left the adjoining dwelling and the facility and his whereabouts at this present time is unknown.

However, Tipperary County Council have invested a lot of time and money over the last number of years organising the clearing of this site, which is expected to take up to two years. Work commenced before Christmas and it is estimated that up to 1,500 tonnes has been already moved to the Ballaghveny landfill in Toomevara.

Visiting the site in Coolross last week to view progress, Cathaoirleach of Nenagh Municipal District, Cllr Michael O’Meara said: “It’s great to finally see this site being cleared. I wish to acknowledge Tipperary County Council and my fellow councillors for their support in achieving this.”

Members of the District at their monthly meeting on Zoom on Thursday last were told by council officials that work on clearing the site is progressing well.

Cllr O’Meara said the site had a hugely contentious past. He said the current transport of the organic waste to the council’s landfill at Ballaghveny near Ballymackey was going well.

He added: “We put in a huge amount of work trying to get the site to where it is today. We had a huge amount of legal obstruction in the past and it's coming to a satisfactory conclusion now.”

Cllr Ger Darcy said great work had been done on the site at Coolross. Operations on the site in the past had “caused a lot of grief to a lot of people.”

Kieran McKenna of the council’s Environment section said the local authority had so far removed 1,500 tonnes of organic waste from the site. The work would continue over the next two years, and he added that the local community had been very patient considering the length of time it was taking to finish the works. Some 500 tonnes a week were being extracted from the site, “so we are rolling now,” said Mr McKenna.