At July 2020, the total number of identified landfill sites was 611

This included
– 117 sites licensed and regulated by the EPA since March 1997, and which it continues to monitor – consisting of 64 sites operated by local authorities and 53 operated privately.
– 494 unregulated sites registered by local authorities on a web-based register established by the EPA. Over 70% of the sites are former local authority-operated landfills. Around 21% were privately operated sites, while just over 8% were illegal dump sites

By the end of 2019, all 280 of the post-1977 local authority sites on the Section 22 register had been risk assessed and all but one had been categorised. Over half of the sites were assessed as either high risk or moderate risk.

Neither the EPA, nor the Department, nor the regional waste management planning offices were able to provide the examination team with complete information on the risk assessment status of the remaining 214 sites on the Section 22 register as at 31 December 2019.

Recommendation 1
The Department should conduct a comprehensive review of governance arrangements related to landfill sites to ensure that responsibilities for oversight and monitoring of landfill sites are clearly defined and assigned to ensure that appropriate steps to eliminate risks to the environment and communities are taken in a timely and efficient manner.

Recommendation 2
The Department should develop proposals for ensuring that all outstanding risk assessments are completed on a timely basis and that remediation plans are put in place as a matter of priority in respect of those landfill sites which are assessed as of either moderate or high risk.

Recommendation 3
The Department should develop medium term estimates of the future costs associated with landfill remediation.

Download Report here:

A ‘closed landfill’, also commonly referred to as a historic landfill, is defined in the said Regulations as a landfill site operated by a local authority for the recovery or disposal of waste without a waste licence on any date between 15th July 1977 and 27th March 1997.

The Environmental Protection Agency is obliged to process applications from local authorities in relation to ‘closed landfills’ in accordance with the Waste Management (Certification of Historic Unlicensed Waste Disposal and Recovery Activity) Regulations, 2008.

The purpose of certificates of authorisation is to specify control and remediation measures required at a closed landfill to ensure that waste disposed or recovered in the closed landfill is not causing, or is not likely to cause, environmental pollution.  A certificate of authorisation shall comply with the above Regulations.

Before making an application for a certificate of authorisation, a local authority has to identify and register the closed landfill in accordance with the Regulations. The local authority shall then carry out a risk assessment in respect of the closed landfill in accordance with the EPA Code of Practice – Environmental Risk Assessment for Unregulated Waste Disposal Sites and the Regulations (Regulation 6).  Once the risk assessment has been completed, the local authority apply to the EPA for a certificate of authorisation (Regulation 7).

As of Jan 2022, there are 69 registered Historic Landfills

You can search the dataset of Historic Landfills here:

Or click on a specific Landfill Facility here:

Safety concerns mean old landfill sites will continue to cost taxpayers money

“As of July 2020, the total number of identified landfill sites was 611. By the end of 2019, only three privately operated landfills were still in operation, the report said. They included 117 sites licensed and regulated by the EPA since March 1997, and which it continues to monitor —  64 sites operated by local authorities and 53 operated privately. Some 494 unregulated sites are registered by local authorities on a web-based register established by the EPA.” 

The report said that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) monitors environmental risk factors on an ongoing basis on the 117 landfill sites it has licensed and regulated since March 1997.

The EPA does not monitor environmental risk factors at the remaining 494 landfills that have been identified by the local authorities and are registered on an EPA-hosted database.

More than half of the 280 sites operated by local authorities and subsequently closed between June 1977 and March 1997 have been assessed as of either moderate or high risk, the report found.

Remediation plans have been submitted to the EPA in only 29 of the 280 sites. 

“Neither the EPA, nor the department, nor the regional waste management planning offices were able to provide the examination team with complete information on the risk assessment status of the remaining 214 sites on the register as at December 31, 2019, which included pre-1977 local authority sites, private sites and illegal sites,” the report stated.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40057541.html

Note: generally each historic landfill has an environmental screening report. Where a report is available, it’s generally an AA Screening Report, and can be difficult to locate on the EPA website. Click on the relevant Landfill Reg No (eg H0006-01), then click on View Applicant Documents. It is usually the largest file in the list

Note: Appropriate Assessment Screening is required under the Habitats Directive for any project or plan that may give rise to significant effects on a European (Natura 2000) site. The reports do cover water quality. They also cover potential cumulative effects, eg Ardfelt Quarry is less than 2km from Ardfelt Historic Landfill, and hydrologically linked

Examples of Appropriate Assessment Screening Reports prepared on behalf of local authorities on historic landfill sites

Dunkineely Landfill, Donegal

Carrick Landfill, Donegal

Barnageeragh Landfill, Dublin

Southpark Landfill, Galway