Poolbeg Incinerator

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Environmental Enforcement: Poolbeg & Covanta

Ann Butler
"Independent Consultant"

10-Year-Director EPA-Ireland.
Covanta-Poolbeg-Dublin-Waste-to-Energy Contractor
Covanta-Energy-Answers-Rathcoole Contractor.

Dublin WTE Public Information Session:

Question (Member of Public to Dublin WTE at a public 'information' session):

Who staffs the office of Environmental Enforcement?
Who will conduct the monitoring of the [incinerator] plant and at what frequency?

Answer (Ann Butler, 'Environmental Consultant', Representing Dublin WTE):

The licence which the EPA issues will set out what monitoring and reporting must be carried out, for example, real time monitoring, intermittent monitoring of other emissions and the requirements to submit information on a regular basis. The EPA will also undertake checks and independent monitoring, as is required in legislation.

Source: "Statutory Process - Session 1.doc", Statutory Processes, 25 September 2004, Dublin Waste to Energy - Information Day 5.

Information & Misinformation

Was the question answered in a meaningful way?

The Dublin Waste to Energy Project website omits any mention of the revolving door relationships between EPA and the Incineration Industry, however innocent or professional they may be. This statutory process document does not highlight the consultant's Ten Year Directorship at EPA-Ireland and the potential conflicts of interest where the gamekeeper could turn poacher. Is thisThe Big Lie in Practice? Is it an ethical use of taxpayer money?

Footnotes:

The project title "Dublin Waste to Energy" is cynical spin for the more accurate "Dublin Waste to Toxins".

The Dublin Waste to Energy Project website prominently features a cynically misleading image of the proposed waste to toxins incinerator.

Dublin City Council has generated this alleged misinformation using €19,000,000 of taxpayer money. Dublin City Council has spent in excess of €19 million to promote the business goals of Dublin Waste to Energy Ltd, apparently. That's equivalent to tapping each person in the surrounding area for €2,000 each.

Dublin City Council has financially stressed or penalised Dublin citizens looking for information. At Bord Pleanala and at EPA public hearings Dublin City Council has used lawyers to interrupt and apparently harass(a) honest Dublin citizens.

Chinese Walls: Dublin Waste to Energy is essentially Covanta, a Luxembourg incorporated offshore entity billed as "Covanta USA". Tobacco companies have been fined billions of dollars within the USA, but not inside the Luxembourg legal firewall. Cigarettes deliver toxic particles in to lungs, perhaps not unlike incinerators. Dublin Waste to Energy Ltd is billed as a joint venture between "Covanta Energy, USA" and DONG Energy Generation, Denmark. Covanta also owns Energy Answers. Energy Answers International is apparently a legally independent or firewalled corporation based, for whatever reason, in the Virgin Islands and in Dublin. Energy Answers hired the former EPA-Ireland Director in July 2007.

_____________________
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/green-leader-in-secret-meetings-over-second-incinerator-for-city-1426003.html.

http://www.dublinwastetoenergy.ie/html/dublin-waste-to-energy.html

Culture of complicity and complacency
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,446889,00.html

(a) as some honest people and not necessarily The Galway Tent would conclude.

Environmental Enforcement: EPA's Piece of Paper

Waves paper to the crowd- receiving loud cheers and "Hear Hears"

EPA's Piece of Paper

While the Environmental Protection Agency EPA issued an awesome piece of paper termed a draft Integrated Pollution Control licence in 2001, it was never implemented by Irish Ispat (Cork shipyard).

How many people in Cork are now dead or have compromised health from the Chromium Six and other toxins?

Guess who directed the EPA at that time.
Guess which incineration company has apparently hired that same Director to promote their proposed Waste-To-Toxics factories in Dublin.

An "attempt" by the EPA in 2004 to compel the liquidator, Ray Jackson (of KPMG), to fund the clean-up of the Cork site failed, leaving Irish Taxpayers to foot the clean-up bill, which at the time was estimated to be around €30 million but which the contractors claim is likely to cost taxpayers €300 million.

EPA-Ireland has already or will soon issue more valuable pieces of paper awesomely termed licences for incinerators in Meath, Cork and Poolbeg.

Guess who will pay for the 100's of stroke victims or the 50 to 300 premature deaths across Dublin each year?

Firewalled American Special Purpose Entities in the Caribbean?
Firewalled American Special Purpose Entities in The Grand Duchy?
Galway Tent Insiders protected by the HSE firewall?
You.

Sources: Irish Times, Irish Independent, July 2008.

Friday, July 4, 2008

Grüne Führer im 'geheim' Sitzungen über zweite Verbrennungsanlage.

Themen

Donnerstag Juli 03 2008

GREEN-Minister John Gormley und Eamon Ryan gehalten 'geheim' Sitzungen mit Vertretern der US-Unternehmen Energie Answers (Covanta) um eine Verbrennungsanlage in Dublin.

Die Energie Answers (Covanta) Unternehmen vorgeschlagenen € 200 m vor der Anlage N7-Autobahn in Rathcoole, Co Dublin, würden im Wettbewerb mit der geplanten Verbrennungsanlage in Poolbeg Herr Gormley eigenen Wahlkreis.

Einheimische äußerten Befürchtungen, dass Herr Gormley würde es vorziehen, haben die Rathcoole Anlage laufen, so dass die Verbrennungsanlage Poolbeg wäre nicht erforderlich.

Fine Gael Senator Frances Fitzgerald gestern in Frage gestellt, warum Herr Gormley und Herrn Ryan Sitzung wurden "heimlich" mit Menschen, seien "zu Gunsten der Verbrennung".

"Die grüne Politik scheint sich geändert haben ganz auf die Sache - nicht lange her, dass der damalige stellvertretende John Gormley war staunchly gegnerischen einer Verbrennungsanlage in seinem eigenen Wahlkreis", sagte sie.

Doch ein Sprecher von Herrn Gormley, sagte der Sitzung war nur zum Zwecke des Lernens über das Projekt.

"Die Abteilung gibt keine Art von Segen für jede spezifische Entwicklung, weil die Abteilung und der Minister ist für Sie absolut ausgeschlossen von der Mitwirkung am Planungsprozess", fügte er hinzu.

Herr Gormley war stark gegen die Verbrennung und daran arbeiten, den das Recycling der "Eckpfeiler" der Abfallpolitik, sagte er.

Details zu den Sitzungen kam ans Licht als Antwort auf eine parlamentarische Anfrage von Frau Fitzgerald und Grüne Partei TD Paul Gogarty, Protest, an Sitzungen gegen die geplante Verbrennungsanlage Rathcoole in ihrem Dublin Mid-West-Wahlkreis.

Herr Gormley traf Anne Butler, ein Umwelt-Berater anheuerte Energie Answers (Covanta), im vergangenen Juli. Zuvor war sie Leiterin der Environmental Protection Agency für 10 Jahre und Präsident des Institute of Engineers für ein Jahr.

Herr Ryan traf das Unternehmen im Januar gesagt, aber dies war im Wesentlichen ein "Zuhören Übung".

Energie Answers (Covanta) konnte zu umgehen traditionellen Planungsverfahren nach An Bord Pleanala entschieden, im Dezember letzten Jahres, dass ihr Projekt wurde eine strategische Entwicklung der Infrastruktur. Es ist noch nicht Bord Pleanala Anhörung als Opposition wächst in Rathcoole.

Rathcoole Community Council Sprecher Sean Reid gesagt hatte 400 Menschen nahmen an einer Sitzung im letzten Monat aus Protest gegen die Pläne Verbrennungsanlage. Seine Gruppe vorher gewarnt, dass Herr Gormley wünschen konnte die Rathcoole Verbrennungsanlage gebaut, bevor die Poolbeg Verbrennungsanlage.

"Die Leute können nicht helfen, fragen und möglicherweise gäbe es ein Element der Menschen setzen zwei und zwei zusammen. Aber die Indikationen wurden von Vertretern seiner Partei, Herr Gormley ist nicht (zugunsten der Verbrennungsanlage)", sagte er.

Herr Reid sagte seine Gruppe habe Belege von US-Experten, dass es möglich war, für das Recycling bis zu 80pc von Abfällen - Deponie und der Rest -, anstatt auf die Verbrennung.

"Wir tun nicht das Gefühl, dass die Verbrennung ist die beste Methode für die Entsorgung von Abfällen", sagte er.

Indoors

Energie Answers (Covanta) hat gesagt, die Möglichkeit, beschrieben als "Resource Recovery Project ', würde auf den höchsten ökologischen Standards, mit allen auftretenden Operationen Abfälle im Freien.

Eine Sprecherin bestätigt, Frau Butler traf Herr Gormley im Namen des Unternehmens sagte, aber diese war rein zu informieren ihn über das Projekt.

Das Unternehmen hat sich ein Unternehmen aus dem Departement für Verteidigung, dass sie keine Einwände gegen die Verbrennungsanlage, wäre der Standort von weniger als fünf Kilometer von der Air Corps "Baldonnell Aerodrome.

___________________

Machine translation

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/green-leader-in-secret-meetings-over-second-incinerator-for-city-1426003.html

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Green leader in 'secret' meetings over second incinerator

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/green-leader-in-secret-meetings-over-second-incinerator-for-city-1426003.html

Click title for direct link to Irish Independent article

Green Leader in 'secret' meetings over second incinerator for city

GREEN ministers John Gormley and Eamon Ryan held 'secret' meetings with representatives of a US company seeking to build another incinerator in Dublin.

The Energy Answers company's proposed €200m facility off the N7 motorway in Rathcoole, Co Dublin, would compete with the planned Poolbeg incinerator in Mr Gormley's own constituency.

Locals expressed fears that Mr Gormley would prefer to have the Rathcoole facility running so the Poolbeg incinerator would not be needed.

Fine Gael Senator Frances Fitzgerald questioned yesterday why Mr Gormley and Mr Ryan were meeting "secretly" with people who were "in favour of incineration".

"The Green policy seems to have changed entirely on the matter -- not that long ago the then Deputy John Gormley was staunchly opposing an incinerator in his own constituency," she said.

However, a spokesman for Mr Gormley said the meeting was purely for the purposes of learning about the project.

"The department does not give any sort of blessing to any specific development because the department and the minister is absolutely precluded from involvement in the planning process," he added.

Mr Gormley was strongly opposed to incineration and committed to making recycling the "cornerstone" of waste policy, he said.

Details of the meetings came to light in response to a parliamentary question by Ms Fitzgerald and Green Party TD Paul Gogarty, who attended protest meetings against the proposed Rathcoole incinerator in their Dublin Mid-West constituency.

Mr Gormley met Anne Butler, an environmental consultant hired by Energy Answers (An alias for Covanta-Poolbeg? -Blog Text Insert-), last July. Previously, she was director of the Environmental Protection Agency for 10 years and president of the Institute of Engineers for one year.

Mr Ryan met the company in January but said this was essentially a "listening exercise".

Energy Answers was able to bypass traditional planning procedures after An Bord Pleanala ruled, last December, that its project was a strategic infrastructural development. It is awaiting a Bord Pleanala hearing as opposition grows in Rathcoole.

Rathcoole Community Council spokesman Sean Reid said 400 people had attended a meeting last month in protest at the incinerator plans. His group previously warned that Mr Gormley might want the Rathcoole incinerator built before the Poolbeg incinerator.

"People can't help wondering and possibly there would be an element of people putting two and two together. But the indications were given by representatives of his party that Mr Gormley is not (in favour of the incinerator)," he said.

Mr Reid said his group had evidence from US experts that it was possible to recycle up to 80pc of waste -- and landfill the rest -- rather than rely on incineration.

"We don't feel that incineration is the best method of disposing of waste," he said.

Indoors

Energy Answers has said the facility, described as a 'Resource Recovery Project', would operate to the highest environmental standards, with all waste operations occurring indoors. (Except when they don't. Covanta has a recent record of unlawfully exceeding Dioxin limits at all its incinerators in the highly polluted state of New Jersey. When known as Ogden, Covanta was cited by the US legal system for 6,000 violations in just two years. -Blog Text Insert-).

A spokeswoman confirmed Ms Butler met Mr Gormley on behalf of the company but said this had been purely to inform him about the project.

The company has secured an undertaking from the Department of Defence that it will not object to the incinerator, which would be sited less than five kilometres from the Air Corps' Baldonnell Aerodrome.

-End of Irish Independent article (text corrected, July 14, 2008)

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For a paper owned by Billionaires it seems the Irish Independent actually does inform the people. Surprisingly, for a paper owned by a "trust" it seems the Irish Times has slipped back to its past imperial role where it did not necessarily work on behalf of the peasant people.

Is EPA-Ireland Inside The Galway Tent?

Is EPA-Ireland Inside The Galway Tent?

Environment Minister Mr Gormley ("secretly" says the Indo) met Anne Butler, an environmental consultant hired by Energy Answers/Covanta.

Previously, she was Director of the Environmental Protection Agency for 10 years and president of the Institute of Engineers for one year.

(Butler was hired by Energy-Answers-Covanta in July 2007)

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/green-leader-in-secret-meetings-over-second-incinerator-for-city-1426003.html
http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2003/12/07/story257079427.asp

--------------

Anne Butler.
An Earner.

DIT:
Currently working as an environmental consultant, she was on the board of the EPA for ten years, and headed up the EPA’s waste division which for the first time regulated waste facilities in Ireland at a time of great change.

http://www.dit.ie/DIT/news/2005/anne-butler.html

-----------------------------------
CRH:
Anne Butler joined the EPA when it was set up in 1993 and left last April (2003). She said she was working as a consultant for CRH at a "strategic" and "high level".

CRH subsidiary Roadstone Dublin was drawn into the illegal dumping controversy in Wicklow when hundreds of thousands of tonnes of waste were found on CRH lands at Blessington.
The company is in talks with Wicklow County Council and must apply to the EPA for a licence to clean up the site.

http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2003/12/07/story257079427.asp
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Which stinks more?

DCC-DDDA's politicially managed Sewage Factory at Poolbeg

or the

Revolving Doors between "consulting" businesses and waste-to-toxics companies HQ'ed offshore and EPA-Ireland and Bord Pleanala?

An ex-Indaver employee is with EPA-Ireland.
July 2007/8: Energy Answers/Covanta hired an ex-Ten-Year-EPA-Ireland Director.
April 2008: Covanta hired a senior ex-EPA-USA employee.
Taoiseach Ahern appointed his friends to the management levels of DDDA and Dublin Port Company.
Currently an ex-employee of RPS is on the executive board of Ireland's An Bord Pleanala. This board apparently uses political science to override its knowledgeable and honest inspectors (Cork, Meath, Poolbeg).

DCC has spent 19 million Euro of taxpayer money on "consultants" to promote Waste-To-Toxics incineration. DCC's chief pro-incinerator business consultant is RPS, apparently focused on certain planning matters and legal tick-boxes. RPS is also involved with the Poolbeg Sewage factory (under a different name on the site signage) and also apparently with Shell in Mayo.

The stink over five years from the Poolbeg Sewage factory and the unexplained new payment of €36 million is the prime example of the capabilities of DCC-DDDA. This is the smell of the outcomes of political management. Incinerators do not smell. And like tobacco-industry best-available-excuses you can not prove they compromise your health.

Guns don't kill, Incinerators do.
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More:
http://galwaytent.blogspot.com/2008/04/incinerator-revolving-doors-at-epa-abp.html

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Once officials, Now consultants

Once Officials, Now Consultants

http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2003/12/07/story257079427.asp

Unlike the United States, Britain and Canada, the Republic has no regulations governing the movement of state officials to consultancy positions in the private sector. [Sunday, December 07, 2003].

Kevin McDonnell, a former Dublin inspector with the EPA, works as adviser to Ray Stokes, the Dublin businessman who recently bought a dump at Whitestown in west Co Wicklow. McDonnell's company, Agritech Solutions, based in Dublin, is carrying out the work.

Ted Nealon, another former EPA inspector,works for Dean Waste Co, which trades as A1 Waste, the waste company owned and controlled by Dublin businessmanTony Dean.

Hubert Fitzpatrick, a former assistant manager of Wicklow County Council, was a consultant to A&L Goodbody solicitors. He works for the Construction Industry Federation.

Frank Kavanagh, former county manager with South Dublin County Council, works as a planning consultant to multimillionaire property developer Jim Mansfield.

Ciaran Ryan, formerly of Fingal County Council, runs a planning consultancy in Dublin with Mark Walsh, former deputy county manager and director of planning in Fingal County Council.

Willie Murray, a former planning official in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, has been working for the Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Light Rail Company, a private consortium backing a Luas extension from Sandyford to Cherrywood in south Co Dublin.

Donough Murphy, who was a board member of An Bord Pleanala from 1989 to 1999, is an architect and planning consultant. He now works for property company Treasury Holdings.

Jim Barrett, recently retired Dublin City Architect
Jim Barrett gave evidence as part of Developer's project team (Dunne/Ballsbridge, 2008).

EPA Uses Political Science - Not Medical Science.

The EU's newest standards for air pollution are much less effective than the 'disappointing' US standards.

Incinerators are not effectively monitored for deadly PM2.5 particle pollution.
_____________________

"We know that soot (PM2.5 particle pollution) can cause significant harm, especially to children and senior citizens, at levels well below this standard," said Ed Hopkins, director of the Sierra Club�s environmental quality program. "

By choosing politics over science, EPA is jeopardizing the health of our communities."

"It's disappointing that the EPA (USA) has once again put industry before public health," said Alice McKeown, air analyst for the Sierra Club. "This decision goes against the combined recommendations of over 2,000 peer-reviewed studies, medical and health groups and the EPA's own independent science advisers.
It was clearly based on political science, not medical science."

http://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/releases/pr2006-09-21.asp

http://www.sierraclub.org/cleanair/soot/
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