11 November 2004 Edition

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Mayo protests asbestos incinerator plan

BY ROISIN DE ROSA

Mayo Sinn Féin County Councillor Gerry Murray

Mayo Sinn Féin County Councillor Gerry Murray

"Is the Department intending to use Mayo as the sink for every environmental hazardous waste process that industrialists and multinationals want to bring to this country? Are such foreign companies trying to take advantage of the attitude of the coalition government here to the question of incineration, which successive Ministers have been trying to force down our throats, over the past five years? They questions have to be asked of the Department of the Environment and the new minister, Dick Roche," said Mayo Sinn Féin County Councillor Gerry Murray at a meeting last Monday night in Killala.

Over 1,000 people attended the huge meeting, called in response to a proposal to build an incinerator for asbestos on the old Asahi site at Killala Bay.

ARI Technologies Inc, an American company, has signed a deal with an Irish company, Irish Environmental Processors Ltd, to 'recycle' asbestos waste through thermal treatment (which means incineration to the likes of you and me), to produce, they claim, "an inert, non toxic, unregulated" waste product which could be suitable for building roads.

ARI, it is reported, owns the patent on this process, and states that it will be "well and truly tested in America before the system is brought to Ireland" — Mayo in particular.

Mayo TDs were present at the meeting, and the leader of Fine Gael, Enda Kenny took the opportunity to state his "total opposition to incineration", which is very fortunate given Fine Gael's hopes to include the Green Party in a future coalition deal.

Party representatives from the Mayo area, with the exception of the government parties, spoke strongly against this proposal, as did Gerry Murray, who pointed out that the party had fought the Government's waste management plans for Mayo in 1999, 2000 and 2001.

"When the people had thrown out Minister at the time, Noel Dempsey's, plan, the Government simply went ahead and imposed his plan, through the Waste Management Amendment Act, which took the power away from elected councillors, and made decisions on Waste Management an executive function of the Council Manager," Murray recalled.

The promise is of jobs, to replace all those who worked in the Asahi plant, which closed its doors leaving hundreds without work. "But how many more jobs could be created through funding local waste collection and re-cycling, under community management and ownership?" asked Gerry.

Asbestos is well known as one of the most dangerous substances. Its tiny micro fibres enter through the skin and air into the lungs and body and cause pneumoconiosis, and ultimately, cancers and death. It is not safe to work with asbestos once it is disturbed.

"As always we have now to clean up the pollution that industry has knowingly caused to our environment, and Mayo has been selected as the place to do it," said Murray. "Do these companies think we are all idiots? Do we really want truckloads of this most toxic material trundling through our country roads? And if ARI Technologies turns out such a benign substance as they claim, why then is it necessary to bury it under our roads? No doubt it will be at a good price per ton."

People are no longer fooled by the environmental claims of commercial companies, which seek to turn a profit on pollution of the environment — and always in the name of 'pollution control'. On Monday, 1,000 people from a small area of Mayo proved the point.


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