Residents living beside Dublin Airport have lodged an appeal against Fingal County Council’s decision to grant planning permission for an aircraft viewing facility, citing concerns over potentially contaminated soil at the site.
St Margaret’s The Ward residents’ group said that although it broadly favours improvement works at the observation mound, there is a risk to public health and the environment following the granting of permission.
With its approval, granted late last month, airport operator DAA aims to significantly enhance the site of the current informal airport viewing point – a layby locally known as “The Mound”, which has been in operation for more than 40 years – on the Old Airport Road.
After receiving the permission, the airport’s managing director, Gary McLean, said the public’s reaction to the proposal had been “incredibly positive”. He said the new facility would make airplane viewing “safer and more enjoyable”.
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However, Liam O’Gradaigh, spokesman for the residents’ group, claimed the issue of alleged soil contamination and its treatment at the site were not adequately addressed in Fingal’s decision to grant permission to DAA. The council also ruled out any environmental assessment.
Soil contaminations from PFOS (a synthetic chemical used to make products resistant to stains, grease, soil, and water) and PFAS (known as forever chemicals), posed a threat to public health and no screening or assessment were provided for in the council’s decision, he said.
PFAS (per-and poly-fluoroalkylated substances) have become a legacy problem globally, including at airports where firefighting foam containing the chemicals was once used.
A 28-month monitoring programme undertaken on behalf of DAA by environmental consultants Fehily Timoney between 2021 and 2023 confirmed the presence of “forever chemicals” at a number of sample sites across its campus.
Mr O’Gradaigh said: “We have witnessed how responsible State organisations such as MetroLink and Transport Infrastructure Ireland have handled such issues.”
He said the group learned from a hearing on Metrolink that some excavations near the Mound led to the discovery of contamination. That contaminated soil is going to be shipped overseas by these State bodies, he said.
“The airport campus is one of Ireland’s largest known PFAS/PFOS contamination sites and worryingly is hydrologically linked to the European sites along the Dublin coast,” he said. “There has to be proper oversight, assessment and mitigation plans put in place.”
In their appeal, the residents claim issues relating to soil contamination were raised in third-party submissions and were not addressed by DAA in a further information request.
“We are extremely disappointed with this opinion as we provided ample proof that the site is in very close proximity to known PFAS/PFOS discoveries as part of the Metrolink preliminary investigations,” the group wrote in its submission.
“The airport is widely known to have a serious PFAS/PFOS contamination issue and Fingal County Council have been appointed by the EPA to oversee the issue,” it said.
A spokesperson for the airport authority said: “As part of the request for further information received from the planning authority, DAA carried out an extensive site investigation at ‘the Mound’.
“While PFAS/PFOS analysis was not requested (or required) to address the planning authority’s concerns in this regard, we have proactively carried out such investigations within the project area with no PFAS detected.”
DAA was happy to share this study with St Margaret’s The Ward group, its spokesperson said, and any other interested party “to alleviate their specific concerns and to enable them to reconsider their appeal and declare their full support of this project, which is much wanted by the wider local community”.
