Drumnakelly Dump Central In Council Environmental Agenda

AS you drive past the Drumnakelly waste dump at Seaforde you could be forgiven for not knowing that it is a major environmentally engineered site.

Down District Council Operations Manager Joe Parkes at Drumnakelly dump

Black bin household and business waste from across Down District which is deemed to be residual waste ie cannot be recycled, is used as landfill under very regulated conditions in Drumnakelly.

We donned yellow hats and jackets for H&S, signed in, and proceeded up the muddy path to the sound of diggers and bulldozers. A constant stream of lorries delivering clay and topsoil passed over the weighbridge at the entrance. The slow process of capping the different sections of the site was in progress.

Joe Parkes, Down District Council Operations Manager, said, “It is quite a complex business. Our basic aim is to get people to recycle their waste where possible. With a landfill tax of currently £56 per ton rising to £64 per ton in April, there is an even greater need now to recycle what we can.

One of the landfill cells at Drumnakelly

“The Drumankelly site is regulated through the Northern Ireland Environment Agency and the EU regulations that we have to comply with them. We have to have a Push and Control Protection permit to operate the site.

“As waste is dumped into the landfill areas, there is a process of capping this with clay and soil. But first we have to line the area with geo-liners. This layering process goes on until the vast hole is filled and it can be modeled into the shape of a drumlin to match the landscape. Basically huge rolls of geo-textiles are used to separate the layers.

“Already we have completed parts of Drumnakelly and the ground has reverted back to a natural state with wild plants and wildlife. The site may be open for another four to 10 years and eventually it will once it is finally and completely capped, look part of the natural landscape.

The leachate tanks at Drumnakelly collect waste water from the ground for recycling

“But it is not a question of just walking away from the site. It has to be managed for a period of anything from 30-60 years again under the supervision of government and comply to strict EU guidelines. The final time span will be determined after discussions with the NIEA.”

As the guided tour around the Drumnakelly site with Joe Parkes proceeded, we reached the higher level of the site, and a distinct gassy smell filled the air at one point.

“That’s methane gas,” explained Joe. It comes from the process of the waste breaking down. Basically this gas will ultimately be collected and converted to electrical energy and fed into the national grid once the site is finished. It will provide a source of revenue towards the up-keep of the area over its transitional period when it has to be observed. Around the site we have set up points to collect the methane.”

Vehicles are weighed in at Drumnakelly to record the volume of waste

To date at Drumnakelly, the first historic part of the site has been capped and is complete and has returned to its natural state. The second area also has a capped section, with other parts that are either part-filled, and one is a huge hole gouged in the landscape waiting to be filled. 

But Joe explained another important aspect of the management of the Drumnakelly site. “As surface water from rain and snow percolates down through the ground, and the waste itself generates some water, there tends to be a build-up underground in the cells that have been created and compacted by the bulldozers weighing up to 32-tons. This leachate water is siphoned off through a system of pipes buried in the different layers under the ground and it is pumped to two big holding tanks where pathogens and solids are filtered out.

"The leachate then is pumped into tankers which go to the NI Waste Water Works at Dargan Crescent in Belfast where it is disposed of. This has to be done periodically and at the moment there are about 3-4 tankers a day removing this waste water. Capping helps to reduce this water build up in the ground.

“We will have to allow £10 per ton to set aside for this waste when the door at Drumnakelly finally closes to just maintain the site for the 30-60 years we will be responsible for it.”

The Council financial reserves have been quite high compared to other councils but Chief Executive John Dumigan has explained that given the size and nature of the waste disposal at Drumnakelly, this has been necessary to guarantee compliance with the EU or face regulations or ultimately face heavy fines.

Down Council has also been asked to sign up for a 25 year term in order to guarantee the incinerator developer in Belfast an assurance of continuity of supply of waste as it is a large private £200million investment. The Council with be soon debating this key issue. 

On the Drumnakelly walkabout, the Composting Area was also visited showing where garden waste is deposited. Contractors and households can dump their green waste here and it later loaded onto lorries and is taken to Glenside in Belfast for shredding.

At Drumnakelly, there are four full-time staff working on site, but a number of the earth works operations are carried out by private contractors.

Joe explained that there were three groups managing waste in the Northern Ireland: Arc21, a North West Group and SWAMP from the Ramah area. Currently the argument to build a huge incinerator in Belfast is raging, and Down Council are cautious about committing to a long-term contract to supply their waste to the Belfast incinerator when a number of key factors could emerge making the waste supply tenuous. The Belfast incinerator would create electricity which could be sold on to the national grid.

Down News understands that intense discussion within Down District Council behind closed doors has taken place over the two options of either backing the incinerator project in Belfast or local recycling initiatives in Down District helping to create green jobs. This last option will also reduce the option of a large green footprint as bin lories travel to Belfast to discharge their waste.

Down District Council now appears to favour a move to locally recycling waste in the Down area helping to provide jobs to the local economy.

It is a difficult call for the Council. “At the moment we are the only Council in Northern Ireland with a landfill site,” added Joe. “It is significant that since the recession has started,” the volume of recyclable waste has also decreased by 2-3%.  That is an indicator of the state of the economy around us at the moment.”

Looking on to the Dromara Hills, the Drumnakelly waste site will within a few years be finally capped and it will return to its state as pristine drumlin countryside. As discussed, the site will have to be monitored and maintained under strict guidelines, but the disposal of Down’s waste will continue to be a costly issue for ratepayers (households and businesses).

ARC21

Down District Council is part of consortium of 11 local councils who came together in 2003 to address the growing challenges of waste management.  Their key environmentally-friendly message is ‘reuse, reduce, recycle’ and they process the blue bin waste.

By 2020, ARC21 hopes to be able to recycle and compost 50 per cent of all waste thus reducing the need for landfill further.