ONE of the biggest illegal dump sites in the North has been uncovered in Derry.
At first 516,000 tonnes of waste was believed to have been buried on the site near the River Faughan.
And the illegal dumping cost the public purse over £36 million in lost landfill and VAT taxes
Now a new investigation – codenamed OPERATION TOOTHFISH – says that over 1 million tonnes of refuse has been buried at the site on the Mobuoy Road in Campsie.
The rubbish was deposited by environmental criminals in pits next to a recycling centre at Mobuoy Road that was shut down when the scandal emerged.
The loss to the public purse in evaded taxes is around £75 million.
For several years waste was illegally deposited in huge pits close to the scenic River Faughan and buried under layers of soil.
And when NI Environment Agency (NIEA) investigators found the illegal dump, the recycling centre was shut down.
The clean up bill for Mobuoy Road is now set at £100 MILLION – enough to pay for 2,600 nurses a year, 1,200 hospital doctors a year and 16,700 hip replacement operations per annum.
The Mobuoy Road dump site is still the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation by the Environmental Crime Unit.
The massive bill was revealed in May in a report by the Criminal Justice Inspectorate which has carried out a review of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency’s ECU.
The report states that the ECU needs to get tougher on environmental criminals and also bring in trained investigators to beef up its unit and bring more polluters to book.
In December 2013, an independent inquiry revealed that an estimated 516,000 tonnes of waste was illegally dumped close to a river on the outskirts of Derry.
Environment Minister, Mark H Durkan, at the time announced the outcome of the independent Mills report into the illegal dump in Campsie and waste management in Northern Ireland which he describes as “sober reading.”
In doing so, he pledged fundamental change in how waste is to be managed in the North.
In June 2013, the then Environment Minister Alex Attwood, revoked the licence of the operator, City Industrial Waste Ltd, following an unprecedented investigation into allegations of large scale criminal offending involving the disposal of waste.
1,000,000 tonnes of waste dumped near River Faughan in Derry
Mr Attwood commissioned the independent report from Mr Chris Mills, the former Director of the Welsh Environment Agency
The key finding from the Mills report is that the regulation of waste in the North is highly vulnerable to criminal infiltration. I
The report also highlights the vast profits with low deterrents that criminals can exploit.
A key recommendation from the report is that there is a need to consider the entire waste system here, to understand how criminals can exploit it and to be more rigorous and robust in regulatory activity and stopping criminals entering the waste industry.
Mr Durkan said: “My predecessor, Alex Attwood MLA, commissioned this review because of his serious concerns about the scale of illegal dumping at the Campsie site and the regulation and management of waste across the north.
“I received the report on the 10 December. It makes for sober reading. Mr Mills is clear in pointing out that we have serious problems right across our waste systems.
“Mr Mills provides a set of recommended actions to fix these problems. Given the scale of the problems, the implementation of these actions must be done in a powerful way that creates and delivers fundamental change.
“I am determined that this will happen as quickly as possible so that we can start building a waste system that everyone in Northern Ireland can have confidence in.
“I have directed the new Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency to urgently prepare a robust range of actions for my consideration. I will issue my response to the Mills Report in the new year so that everyone is clear about the actions that will be taken to fix the problems that Mr Mills has identified.
“In the meantime, I am releasing Mr Mills’ Report so that everyone has access to his important findings and recommendations. I know that many people are keen to read this important report which has significant implications for how we can protect our precious environment and underpin our economy with a reformed and well-functioning waste system.
“I can assure you though, we have not been sitting on our hands awaiting the report. We have already allocated £1.5 million to NIEA to upgrade its waste regulation and enforcement activities. This marks the beginning of a major strengthening of NIEA’s regulatory activities.”