Man who operated illegal dump remanded in custody as taxpayer faces possible €6m clean-up bill

A man who operated an illegal dump on part of a farm he ran near Enfield Co Meath was remanded in custody for sentence next year at Trim Circuit Court today (Wednesday).

Fred Hendy (53), Ballynakill, Rathcor, Enfield Co Meath who had pleaded guilty earlier this year to handling treating or transferring waste in a manner likely to cause pollution at Ballynakill, Enfield on dates between January 2011 and October 2014 had been remanded in custody overnight after the court heard the taxpayer is facing a bill of €3.6m - €6m to clean up the site.

Over 70,000 tonnes of waste including asbestos was dumped on the farm over a three year period up to October 2014.

Meath County Council environmental engineer Declan Grimes told the court that 51 companies were involved in bringing waste to two dumps on the 267 acre farm owned by defendant's mother Eileen and run by Mr Hendy.

Mr Grimes told prosecuting counsel Carl Hanahoe BL the defendant had lodged an invalid application in 2004 for a waste permit to the council but did not proceed with the application.

Over 50 companies used the farm in Enfield to dump waste

The engineer said that following complaints of trucks entering the land in November 2012 he visited the farm and saw a mound of plastic, concrete blocks and timber dumped on a former pond covering half an acre with more rubbish including demolition and other waste dumped 400m away on another larger site close to a stream running into the Blackwater river.

Mr Grimes told the court he made a further visit to the farm accompanied by gardai and took a cautioned statement from Hendy who claimed he was receiving €20 per load for the waste which was being used to fill in low lying land and he added he was assured by the defendant that no asbestos or hazardous waste was being dumped there.

However the engineer said that on further visits he noticed the dumping had continued and included hazardous broken asbestos whose fibres are cancer causing on the former pond site while contaminated water was flowing from the larger acre site into the stream.

"There was a strong smell of sulphur off the water like rotten eggs and the grass was burned white", he said.

An image taken from the air of the farmland with 70,000 tonnes of waste

Hendy had been warned not to move the asbestos but on a later visit the engineer found it had been removed.

"I never was told where it had gone", said Mr Grimes who added that he had assessed the dumping as posing a high risk to the environment.

The council served a notice on the defendant in March 2012 to cease importing waste onto the farm and diaries for 2011 and 2012 seized from his home showed that 51 operators had been involved in dumping on the farm paying between €20 and €100 per load the court heard.

"The diaries gave an account of what was going on, details of who brought it in and when as well as the extent of the loads and the payments", said the engineer

Mr Grimes said that based on the diaries where the loads were categorised as rubbish, skip waste, muck, fines and Hendy had been paid over €100k to accept the waste.

The court also heard that tests found potentially explosive methane gas as well as carbon dioxide being emitted from the site on an ongoing basis while water lying on the site was contaminated.

Meath Co Council estimate remedial works to the land will cost of €3.5million - €6million to deal with

Mr Grimes told the court the taxpayer faces an estimated cost of €3.5million - €6million to deal with the waste.

"Ultimately the site will have to be remediated by the taxpayer and the cost all depends on the amount of asbestos, there may also have been oils in the skip loads as well", he said.

He added that ongoing monitoring of the site was being carried out and the high concentration of methane gas in the waste had now subsided but contaminated water was continuing to come from the dump.

Defence barrister Derek Kenneally SC told Judge Martina Baxter his client who operated the farm which was owned by his mother Eileen Hendy was profoundly remorseful for his actions but was not in a position to pay towards the clean up of the site.

At a resumed hearing today (Wednesday) the barrister requested the judge to adjourn the case to allow his client to enter into an arrangement with his mother Eileen to sell the farm with a view to making a realistic contribution towards the cost of the remediation of the site.

Judge Baxter described the defendant's approach to the case as disingenuous and remanded him in custody to 11th February for sentence at a later date.