BY MICHAEL BRESLIN

Fermanagh District Council faces forking out 'significant' costs arising from the temporary closure of its state-of-the-art landfill site at Drummee.

The refuse facility just outside Enniskillen was ordered to close following an inspection by officers from the Northern Ireland Environment Agency.

However, subsequent tests revealed that the landfill site was 'safe' and was re-opened after several weeks.

Because of the closure Fermanagh Council had to transport waste elsewhere and pay the high costs involved. The Council also had to pay for tests conducted at the Agency's request.

Councillors were unable to elicit too much information from the chief executive of the Council, Rodney Connor, with the media present during a meeting on Monday evening.

He did assure Brian McCaffrey he would divulge more in private, including the extent of the bill and the lead-up to the closure.

It was demanded back in July by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency following a visit to the plant by officers. They expressed concern at the levels of carbon monoxide at the site.

A subsequent minute from the Council's Policy and Resources Committee records, 'they had a concern that there might be a deep-seated fire present and they issued an Order closing the site for operations'.

The Committee was given details of the sampling and the tests that were carried out, the results of which indicated there was no deep-seated fire and that the levels of carbon monoxide were 'well below the threshold which would indicate a potential fire'.

Likewise, the NI Fire and Rescue Service, who were complimented in open Council this week, carried out a thermal imaging survey, and no fire or source of heat was detected.

Despite those test results, Councillors were told, the NI Environment Agency instructed Odour Monitoring Ireland Ltd to collect test and analysis samples from the site 11 days after the Agency's inspectors had visited Drummee.

Waste that would otherwise have gone to the landfill site was diverted to sites in Omagh and Dungannon and Councillors were told that all costs, transfer of waste and analyses, would be borne by the Council.

The minute described these costs as, 'significant'.

Speaking at this week's monthly meeting, Rodney Connor congratulated Gerry Knox, the director of technical services and his staff for the way they had dealt with, 'a very difficult situation'.

He went on: "The matter has been addressed and the site is again in operation. There are several pieces of work to be carried out and we will work very closely with the Environment Agency to ensure that whatever is done meets the requirements of EU legislation."

Bertie Kerr, on behalf of the members, paid tribute to the effort that had been put in by Council staff. Bu, when he asked the total bill, 'these unreasonable people have caused this Council', Mr Connor said he would prefer not to go down that road.

Brian McCaffrey tried another angle: "Quite clearly, there seems to have been a significant error of judgement made in relation to what happened at Drummee?'

Mr Connor, replying, said Fermanagh and its Council could be proud of an operation that was efficient, operationally and financially.

Mr McCaffrey went on: "At the very least, as a Council, we are entitled to some sort of assurance that this type of situation will not happen again. I appreciate there could be circumstances where an operation has to be closed down but it is fairly clear in this case it was very much a false alarm."

Rodney Connor told him that the initial tests were kept to an absolute minimum, and due to the very quick response by Council staff, other costs were kept to 'really very little'.

He went on: "It's a very difficult situation to be in. You mentioned an error of judgement, but it wasn't on the Council's part. We had excellent support and cooperation from the Enniskillen Fire and Rescue Service who worked very closely with us.

"We went through the proper procedures and the matter was dealt with, and I think it is better to let the matter sit at this stage."