In Wicklow County Council v. Fenton & Ors [2002] IEHC 102 (31 July 2002) the High Court likened the owner of an illegal dump to a receiver of stolen property. Without a receiver there can be no profit in theft; without an illegal dump there can be no illegal dumping. The court accepted the principle advanced by the applicant Council that it did not have to prove negligence; that the state of mind of the Respondents was not required to be proved. The court endorsed the principle of “the polluter pays�, a principle found in Council Recommendation 75/436Euratom and specifically incorporated in Section 5 of the Waste Management Act 1996.

“the polluter pays principle” means the principle set out in Council Recommendation 75/436/Euratom, ECSC, EEC of 3 March, 1975 1 regarding cost allocation and action by public authorities on environmental matters;

Under Section 26 of the Waste Management Act 1996 the Environmental Protection Agency is obliged to incorporate the “polluter pays� principle into its national hazardous waste management plan.

The court found that the Respondents had been negligent on the facts and made orders for the remediation of the lands on which the illegal dump was found.

Consequently, liability under the Waste Management Act 1996 can be established simply by showing that there has been dumping on lands and that there is no authority for such dumping. The liability attaches to the occupier of the land; there is no need to show that the dumping took place during the period of occupation by that occupier.

It is not clear that the true history of Irish land development has been written. Consider the contents of the 2006 Annual Report of An Bord Pleanala.

The report highlights the failures of local planning authorities to take into consideration very important planning aspects in granting permissions for development. The results include improper zoning; consequential flooding; unplanned town development; and water pollution.

If that is what we see now in 2007, what major failures lie in the past?

One failure is pointed to in the setting of penalties of up to €500,000 for local authorities (the very people granting the questionable planning permissions) that pollute water resources.

It now appears that everybody has known for years that the local authorities were (and are) the major polluters of Irish waters before, (or is that after?) farmers.

And what of personal living spaces? Well, they need revision.

What’s to be said? In the words of Alexander Chase:

The peak of tolerance is most readily achieved by those who are not burdened with convictions.

Before the honeymoon was over the Green Party found out what their new partner in government was like.

Before leaving office the (demoted) Minister for the Environment Heritage and Local Government signed an order to destroy the pre-historic site at Lismullen, to facilitate the building of the M3 motorway.

The chattering classes [journalists, this time] declared it was irreversible. (So did the new Attorney General, apparently).

But for an alternative view see Daithí Mac Síthigh HERE.

What is there to be usefully said about the pollution of the Galway city public drinking water supply?

It is useful to ask:

a) why and how it happened;

b) who, if anyone, is responsible as an executive;

c) who, if anyone, is legally responsible;

WHY AND HOW IT HAPPENED?

Ever since 1832, at least, it has been recognised that the safety of the public drinking water supply cannot be taken for granted and requires executive action to deliver it. That was the occasion of an outbreak of cholera in London, traced to several street pumps, all of which were drawing water from water sources polluted by sewage. The germ theory of disease was unknown, but the clusters of deaths corresponded with use of the pumps. (more…)