Locals fume over 65m chimney at Boyne site

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Wednesday, March 07, 2007

By Allison Bray

The prehistoric World Heritage sites at the Boyne and Newgrange will be overlooked by a giant smokestack attached to an incinerator in Co Meath, developers conceded yesterday.

The 65m smokestack will overlook the Bend of the Boyne World Heritage Site, a planning hearing in Drogheda heard yesterday.

Indaver Ireland confirmed at the An Bord Pleanala hearing that the smokestack attached to its proposed €100m waste incinerator at Carranstown, Duleek, Co Meath, will be visible at the ancient prehistoric site.

The site includes the ancient passage tomb at Newgrange as well as megalithic structures at nearby Knowth and Dowth.

However, the company cited a 2004 report by UNESCO which found that the impact would otherwise be minimal even though the incinerator would be located just 1.5km away from a buffer zone protecting the Bend of the Boyne site.

Indaver Ireland project manager Jackie Keaney said: "While the construction of the incinerator stack will be a visual intrusion, the (UNESCO) mission considers that it would have a minimal impact on the World Heritage Site."

UNESCO, which is charged with preserving the site, expressed concern whether emissions from the incinerator could impact the archaeological integrity of the heritage site.

But UNESCO concluded, on the basis of a report commissioned by Indaver, that any effect on the site "would be mitigated by archaeological monitoring", Ms Keane said.

The incinerator would also have a negligible impact on the site of the historic Battle of the Boyne, she said. The sites are regarded by UNESCO as Europe's largest and most important concentration of prehistoric megalithic art.

Indaver, the Belgium-based multinational, received planning permission from Meath County Council in March 2003 to build an incinerator with a capacity to burn 150,000 tonnes of non-hazardous waste a year. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) granted it a waste licence in November 2005.

Indaver now wants to increase the burning capacity of the incinerator by a third to 200,000 tonnes per year.

A number of objectors, including local TDs and residents opposed to the plan are due to make submissions against the application later today and tomorrow.

Opponents of the project fear the possible negative impacts on the local economy, environment and health of area residents as well as the large volume of HGVs travelling to the site.