A Wicklow businessman has been fined €1m for putting the drinking water in Blessington at risk of contamination by illegally dumping dry industrial waste on a site there.
John Healy, 67, who owns Blessington Plant Hire and Blue Bins Ltd, collected waste from local companies before dumping it over a four-year period on a small seven acre site called Dillon's Down at the Roadstone (Dublin) Ltd site in Blessington.
Mr Healy of Crosscool Harbour, Blessington, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to disposing of waste at Roadstone in a manner likely to cause environmental pollution and to disposing of it without a license between 1 January 1997 and 31 October 2001.
Judge Katherine Delahunt said the court accepted that Mr Healy had not been the only person involved in this widespread illegal dumping operation and that it had been acknowledged that his involvement was only over a small area of the site.
Judge Delahunt said that the only reason Mr Healy had engaged in this enterprise was for monetary gain and he had done so with disregard to the local environment. She added that this activity resulted in an entire site being remediated ‘at great expense’.
An independent environmental consultant who assessed the site said he found ‘no engineered or probable natural barrier’ between the waste and the ground water.
This ground water was the drinking water source for homes and businesses in Blessington and the consultant said he found contaminants in it which were in excess of standard drinking water guidelines.
He said the contaminants were consistent with what would have seeped from the waste dumped on the site.
Gardaí had received a complaint from Wicklow County Council in August 2001 after a litter warden thought it suspicious that a substantial amount of waste had been dumped at the Roadstone site.
Rubbish traced
Gardaí carried out an extensive search of materials dumped and were able to trace it back to various local companies. It was discovered that they had all availed of the services of Blue Bins Ltd.
Mr Healy was questioned by gardaí and admitted to running Blue Bins but denied any involvement in illegal dumping at the site until he made frank admissions a year later following five separate garda interviews.
Mr Healy admitted he never asked permission to dump the waste, which he said equated to be between 2,000 and 2,500 tonnes per year. He saw no harm in what he was doing because it was not hazardous material and he believed the amounts being dumped were relatively small.
Detective Sergeant Gerry McGrath described Healy as a well respected man in the local community who had been in the waste management business since the early 1990s.
Det Sgt McGrath accepted a suggestion from Mr Murphy that prior to 1996, when it was not illegal to dump, ‘it was almost customary practice for people to deposit material on the land’.
Mr Cecil Shine, a geologist and defence witness told Mr Murphy that he assessed the site and concluded that the dry industrial waste Healy claimed he dumped there would have had a "relatively low risk" of polluting the lands, plants, animals and water at the site but due to the fact that it was not natural material it would have affected the soil.
Defence counsel, Mr Shane Murphy SC, said Mr Healy showed remorse, embarrassment and shame for his actions having led a blameless commercial life. Mr Healy has sold land and had set aside €300,000 to offer the court.
