·         Anti-Dumping Initiative

·         National Inspection Plan

Mr. Kieran Madden, Senior Engineer in the Environment Section gave the Members an update on Environmental issues as follows:

Anti Dumping Initiative 2017:

·         Nationally €1.5m budget with €53,250 to County Roscommon in 2017.

·         Under Phase 1 Roscommon undertook the clean-up of five sites at Salmon Lane, Ballyleague; Cuillagh, Strokestown; The Oaks, Ballaghaderreen; Kilteevan Bog; Suck Valley Way.

·         Used local contractors for the cleanups and got excellent value for money.

·         Total of 89 tonnes of litter gathered.

·         CCTV and dummy cameras installed at numerous locations.

·         Increasing use of technology including the purchase of drone and the uploading of information on site.

·         Working with probation services included litter picking in Roscommon, Castlerea and Ballaghaderreen.

·         Phase 2 commenced at cost of €30,500 with clean-ups at Drumharlow lake, Suck Valley Way, Tarmon Castlerea, Brooklawn Ballaghaderreen and Rockhill in Arigna.

·         Made adverts for cinema screening involving six secondary schools and a youth group.  The adverts will be premiered on 19^th April in Roscommon cinema and the winning advert will be shown free for period of 3 months.

·         Collaboration with IRadio on social media (500k Facebook followers).

·         Installation of Audio devices at bottle banks.

·         Use of probation Service is at minimum cost.

·         Ongoing monitoring of all sites.

·         In 2018 there will be a national fund of €2million and Roscommon’s allocation expected to be confirmed shortly. Sought funding for 13 projects in sum of €56,000.

National Inspection Plan – Septic Tanks

·         The 2017 target for inspections in county Roscommon is 28 and a total of 34 were inspected.

·         In 2018 the target is 35 and the inspections are expected to commence before the end of April.

·         The sites are selected randomly based on a risk matrix.

·         The failure rate in Roscommon for 2017 is 56% - nationally the figure is 49%. In 2016 the rate was 65%.

·         Nationally the failures were categorised as follows: 29% Operation and Maintenance issues; 24% due to lack of desludging and 29% due to risk to human health or environment. Roscommon figures also tally with this.

RMCEI (Recommended Minimum Criteria for Environmental Inspections) – Roscommon received an excellent report in 2016 and hope to continue this.

The members discussed the presentations as follows:

·         The way forward for improving environmental awareness is through the youth and focusing on more education.

·         Disappointing and disheartening to have to spend money on cleaning up other peoples’ waste. There are four amenity sites in the county and also a bulky goods collection so there is no excuse for this behaviour.

·         Illegal dumping should be highlighted at every opportunity.

·         This scheme for targeted clean up is very positive and working well but it is important that the sites at risk are being monitored.

·         Cannot understand goods that can be recycled for free are being dumped - the council facilitate this at civic amenity sites.

·         Need to get tougher on those that dump – ‘Name and Shame’ otherwise illegal dumping will continue.

·         Most responsible people will do the right thing and Roscommon County Council have been very proactive.

·         There is a need to have a national tyre identity scheme.

·         There is a requirement for legislation that everyone must have a bin and landlords to ensure all tenants have bins including the local authority as a landlord.

·         Encourage people to participate in National Spring Clean 2018.

·         Issue of plastic pollution is becoming a problem especially in the seas.

·         Need to look at where in the county is not covered with access to the three bins.

·         Requirement for people to prove where they are disposing of their waste/litter.

·         Are there many cases pending in the courts and is video evidence acceptable?

·         Coding of packaging should identify where it’s from.

·         Protection of litter wardens form abuse that they often get while going about doing their jobs – need more staff and money.

·         More bins, extension of opening times of Civic Amenity sites and outdoor staff to police where people dispose of waste.

·         There is an initiative called ‘Shop and Drop’ in supermarkets to leave packaging behind on Saturday 21^st April. The purpose of this is to highlight the amount of packaging that is used in a weekly shop.

·         Is septic tanks fail, are follow up inspections carried out?

·         Many septic tanks have problems with their operation, and can they request to have them inspected?

·         Can people self refer septic tanks for inspection?

·         There are many minor failures with septic tanks – what is the timeframe for rectification.

·         Can Roscommon County Council carry out a campaign to encourage desludging of septic tanks to ensure this will not be a reason for failure in future?

·         What are typical costs of rectification works on septic tanks that have failed?

·         Publicity campaign for desludging.

·         We need to do something about ‘green waste’ e.g. hedge clippings?

Kieran Madden responded to matters raised as follows:

·         With regard to septic tanks, there is no breakdown of old and new houses that have been inspected.

·         We do serve S18 Notices on ‘blackspot estates’ i.e. oblige householder to inform Local Authority how they are disposing of their waste.

·         There is a pilot initiative in Sligo with domestic waste collectors in supplying eircodes where waste is collected by them. It will be possible in future to determine amount of waste collected etc. This may be available to us in 2019.

·         While 56% is a high failure rate, it reflects on the type of soils in Roscommon and thus percolation.

·         Self-referrals of septic tanks would lead to resource issue in dealing with increase in inspections

·         There are regulatory timeframes regarding upgrade of septic tanks but we do allow time for desludging if that is the only issue.

·         There is no longer self-compliance regarding disposal of tyres – all have to sign up to Repak and we currently have 80% compliance.

·         Costs of upgrade of septic tanks due to noncompliance can cost up to €5,000 but there is grant payable depending on income limits.

On the PROPOSAL of Cllr. Ward

            SECONDED by Cllr. Kilduff

It was AGREED to write to the Minister of Housing, Planning and Local Government to legislate to allow householders to self-refer septic tanks in need of upgrade to the Local Authority for inspection under the National Inspection Plan, and if remedial works are necessary, that they should be eligible for grant funding subject to the current income conditions.

On the PROPOSAL of Cllr. Connaughton

            SECONDED by Cllr. Mulligan

It was AGREED to write to the Minister for Communications, Climate Change and Environment to give the powers to Local Authorities to “Name and Shame” anyone who is found to have illegally disposed of their waste.