The Environment Section has responsibility for over 500 statutory functions, which are contained within over 100 pieces of legislation. The key areas dealt with include:

• Waste Management
• Water Quality & Pollution Control
• Education & Awareness
• Veterinary Services
• Burial Grounds

 

Waste Management

Dunmore Landfill

The Council's only landfill at Dunmore was due for closure at the end of 2009. Tenders are being sought for the final rehabilitation works in 2010. The adjacent Civic Amenity Site continues to operate and extended facilities will be provided to cater for additional waste for disposal as a result of the landfill closure.

 

Waste Collection Permits

Kilkenny County Council is the issuing authority for Waste Collection Permits for the South East Region, comprising Carlow County Council, Kilkenny County Council, South Tipperary County Council, Waterford City Council, Waterford County Council and Wexford County Council. A total of 450 applications have been granted to the end of 2009 with 27 applications granted during 2009. Reviews of existing waste collection permits are also ongoing.

The Waste Management (Collection Permit) Regulations, 2007 and the Waste Management (Collection Permit) Regulations, 2008 were implemented on the 1^st June, 2008. A multi-regional waste collection permit system has been established whereby the permit holder may now apply to the nominated authority where the principal waste collection activity is to be carried out and also the permit holder may decide to have some or all of any existing waste collection permits in the various regions reviewed or make an application for a permit for the collection of waste in additional regions.

 

Recycling

The Section operates forty bring centres in the county. The maintenance cleaning contract continues to greatly improved the area surrounding the bring centres. The Community Bottle Bank Scheme continued with 12 communities taking care of their own local bring centres.

Two WEEE days were organised in 2009 which serviced Kilkenny City and 5 other locations in the County. In total over 117 tonnes of electrical and electronic appliances were collected for recycling.

 

Enforcement

In total, there were 1441 Environmental Complaints received by the Council in 2009. Illegal dumping accounted for 777, Abandoned vehicles 179, Cars for sale 53, Unauthorised waste activities 58, illegal burning 55, Bring Banks 70, Litter/street cleaning 78, Signage 37, Water Pollution 32 and Dogs 25.

 

In 2009 there were 127 Litter Fines issued under the Litter Pollution Acts 1997-2003. In addition, there were 9 prosecutions initiated under this legislation.

Under the Waste Management Acts 1996-2010, there were 67 notices issued of which 3 resulted in the initiation of prosecution proceedings.

The CCTV system continued to provide good evidence of illegal dumping, with particular emphasis being placed on Bring Banks and dumping black spots. The evidence collected is used to take enforcement action, including possible prosecution, on the offender.

In 2009 the Environment Section carried out 637 inspections of waste incidents and 236 inspections concerned with litter.

The Environment Team carry out routine inspections which included 31 inspections of Waste Permitted Facilities, 55 inspections of tyre outlets, 77 inspections of hazardous waste.

Under air legislation there were 38 inspections of fuel distributors, 39 inspections under the Deco Paint Regulations and 15 inspections under the Solvents Regulations.

The Enforcement Team carry out producer responsibility inspections including 20 inspections of WEEE outlets, 31 ELV inspections, 11 inspections of farm plastics, 107 for the plastic bag levy, 35 under the Packaging Regulations and 466 of battery outlets.

 

Joint Waste Management Plan (JWMP) for South East Region, 2006 - 2011

Progress on the implementation of the provisions of the JWMP included the development of a long term PPP contract for the provision of integrated waste management works and services for the South East Region. The contract is expected to comprise the management of 195,000 tonnes of municipal waste. The pre-qualification/expressions of interest tenders are currently being assessed.

Kilkenny County Council published draft waste collection bye-laws providing for the introduction of a three bin refuse collection service throughout all urban centres in the County with a population in excess of 1000.

 

Litter Management

The Litter Management Plan covers the period 2008 - 2011. A number of initiatives took place in 2008 to raise the awareness of the impact of litter on local communities.

• Litter and the Law Leaflet

Part funded by the Anti-Litter & Anti-Graffiti Awareness Grant a new "Litter and the Law" leaflet was published in 2009. It is available to all community groups, businesses and resident associations to raise awareness of the impact of litter in their community.

• National Spring Clean

In 2009, Team Up to Clean Up Kilkenny was launched with KKB. Over 70 groups in the city and county registered with the National Spring Clean to complete a community clean up.

Model Sarah McGovern from An Taisce with representatives of KKB with
the Chairman Cllr Breathnach and other Local Authority representatives.

 

• Tidy Towns

The Environment Section remains supportive to groups who participate in the national competition. An information evening was held in 2009 and the Environmental Awareness Officer visited 12 groups in the county to discuss issues such as litter in their locality and to raise awareness of the Litter Management Plan.

 

 

Water Quality & Pollution Control

Water Framework Directive & River Basin Management

The EU Water Framework Directive is an important piece of EU environmental legislation which aims at improving our water environment. It requires governments to take a new holistic approach to managing their waters. It applies to rivers, lakes, groundwater, estuaries and costal waters. Member States must aim to achieve at least good status in all waters and must ensure that status does not deteriorate in any waters.

The Water Framework Directive establishes water management at the level of river basins. The River Basin District Management Scheme has been set up to establish an Integrated Monitoring & Management System for all waters within the South Eastern River Basin District. Kilkenny County Council, along with other sectoral interests in the south east of Ireland, is part of the management structure for this River Basin Project. A dynamic programme of management measures has been finalised as part of the River Basin Management Plan. The Draft Plan for the South Eastern River Basin District was published in December 2008 and the final plan is currently in the process of adoption by local authorities across the region. Preparation and finalisation of the plan is being led by Carlow County Council.

 

Pollution Control and Enforcement

Kilkenny County Council's Water Quality Team routinely undertakes targeted farm inspections and river bank surveys in order to identify and mitigate instances of pollution and therefore maintain or achieve Good Water Quality Status for all waters (surface waters, groundwaters, esturine and costal waters). In 2009, the Water Quality Team also produced and distributed across the county a septic tank maintenance leaflet in order to educate and improve awareness amongst householders to protect and improve groundwater quality in the county.

The Environment Section issues and enforces discharge licences for discharges of trade effluents to waters and to the public sewers. Inspections of licensed premises are carried out routinely.

 

 

Education and Awareness

In 2009, the Environment Section co-ordinated activities county-wide for Repak Recycling Week, National Spring Clean, Gum Litter Taskforce Campaign, Energy Awareness Week and EU Waste Prevention Week.

The Environment Section administered a number of grant schemes including; Anti-Litter Awareness Grants, Local Agenda 21 Environmental Partnership Fund and the Community Bottle Bank Scheme.

 

South East Waste Management website (www.wastenot.ie)

In 2009 the South East Waste Management website (www.wastenot.ie) was relaunched at the Iverk Show in Piltown. There was great interest at the event and three Environmental Awareness Officers from the region were on hand to give advice to members of the public on topics such as composting and waste minimisation.

 

Philip O'Neill, T.D. (Director of Environment and Water Services), Dr. Martin Mansergh (Minister of State),
Cllr Michael O'Brien (Chairman of Kilkenny County Council) and Bernadette Moloney (Environmental Awareness Officer).

 

Green Schools Programme

The Green Flag is the most prestigious award that a school can achieve and is given to schools that take action to eliminate litter and reduce waste. Once the award has been achieved the schools then move on to address other issues such as energy, water and travel.

The Environmental Awareness Officer presented a number of sessions during the summers Green Schools Teacher In Service Week which was hosted by An Taisce and last November a green school information evening was hosted by Kilkenny County Council which was aimed at parents and teachers. The programme is strong in Kilkenny with 76% of all schools participating in the programme. The county now has 28 schools with a Green Flag.

The Environmental Awareness Officer completed 32 school visits in 2009 and organised an additional 32 educational visits including SEI Energy Workshops, Waste Construction Workshops and the Litter Monster Puppet shows.

Phil Hogan TD presenting St Canices Co-Ed Primary School their 3^rd Green Flag
at the National Awards Ceremony.

 

EcoChat on KCLR96FM

This is a joint initiative between Kilkenny & Carlow County Councils in conjunction with KCLR96FM. The Environmental Awareness Officers from both Counties go live on air every fortnight to discuss different environmental topics. The segment is called "EcoChat" and is aired after the 11am news on the programme "On the Record" with Sue Nunn.

Bernadette Moloney (Kilkenny Environmental Awareness Officer) and Fionnghuala Ryan
(County Carlow Environmental Awareness Officer) with radio host Sue Nunn

 

Gum Litter Taskforce

Kilkenny County Council participated in the Gum Litter Taskforce (GLT) in 2009. The GLT is a national campaign to raise awareness of gum litter and promote proper gum disposal behaviour.

The campaign was launched in Kilkenny City in 2009 and the campaign targeted events during the summer such as the Youth Fest in the Watershed and an awareness event also took place in the Market Cross Shopping Centre.

 

Climate Change

The Environment Section continues to raise awareness of climate change and provides practical information on how to conserve energy. In 2009 a number of public events were organised in association with Carlow Kilkenny Energy Agency through the library service and at other public events like the McDonagh Junction Green Day Event.

Joan McLoughlin (Environment Section of Kilkenny County Council) with Jane Wickham
(Carlow Kilkenny Energy Agency) with the MacDonagh Junction mascot at the Green Day Event

 

 

Veterinary Services

The Veterinary Service fulfils the food safety service contract between the FSAI and Kilkenny County Council. The Veterinary Public Health and animal welfare functions include providing official controls/regulation of slaughterhouses and small meat processing plants, and in 2009 for the first time small poultry slaughtering plants (includes on farm slaughter of poultry). Others include attendance of South East Regional Zoonoses Committee meetings, participation in multidisciplinary Disease Outbreak Control Teams where appropriate, response to food incidents e.g. Pork Dioxin Incident etc. The service is subject to external audits from the Food and Veterinary Office of the EU and the FSAI.

Slaughterhouses under the service's supervision in 2009, slaughtered 3,778 Cattle, 19,507 Sheep and 921 Pigs. These slaughterhouses are low/medium throughput slaughterhouses which slaughter animals from their local area, and other than the wholesale abattoirs, sell their products to people in the locality. They provide employment to people in the surrounding areas. Official controls provide that each animal slaughtered for human consumption requires an ante mortem inspection and post mortem inspection, audits on implementation of HACCP, sampling, animal welfare audits etc.

The service supervises small/medium meat processing plants in the county. There is a range of meat processing activities occurring in such premises, from storage and distribution, to manufacture of sausages, to the cutting and curing of meat etc. All require veterinary supervision under EU legislation. Frequency of Official Controls are carried by risk assessment and include hygiene inspections, audits on the implementation of HACCP, sampling etc.

The Service is involved in the veterinary and animal welfare issues in the Control of Horses and Control of Dogs. The Control of Horses Enforcement Team licensed 16 horses in 2009. During 2009, there were 7,563 individual dogs licensed and 29 Group Dog Licences were issued. Dog licensing is a team collaboration between the Dog Warden Service (ISPCA) and staff in Environment Section.

Carlow / Kilkenny Dog Shelter

 

 

Burial Grounds

Kilkenny County Council has 14 open and active Burial Grounds across the County with each having a Caretaker in place to manage the record keeping.

New burial ground maps are being developed and will be distributed to the Caretakers on completion. The old maps will be handed over to the County Library.

A full audit of Burial Grounds was underway in 2009 to advise on remaining capacity.

Grants for the maintenance and improvement of historic graveyards were allocated to 23 community groups in 2009.