Section 53A Workshop
1st March 2012
Landfill Directive – 99/31
Member States shall take measures to ensure that all of the costs involved in the
setting up and operation of a landfill site, including as far as possible the cost of the
financial security or its equivalent referred to in Article 8(a)(iv), and the estimated costs
of the closure and after-care of the site for a period of at least 30 years shall be
covered by the price to be charged by the operator for the disposal of any type of
waste in that site. Subject to the requirements of Council Directive 90/313/EEC of 7
June 1990 on the freedom of access to information on the environment, Member States
shall ensure transparency in the collection and use of any necessary cost information
[Article 10]
S53A of the WMA
 Inserted on 12 July 2004 - refer S.I No. 393 of 2004
 Landfill operators shall impose charges for the disposal of waste such that
aggregate amount during the relevant period will not be less than:
 the costs of acquisition or development,
 the costs of operating (including the costs of financial provision), and
 the estimated costs, during a period of not less than 30 years or such
greater period as may be prescribed, of the closure, restoration,
remediation or aftercare of the facility.
 Irrespective of whether the costs have been or will be met from other
financial measures available to the operator
Licence condition
In accordance with the provisions of Section 53A of the Waste Management
Acts 1996 to 2010, the licensee shall ensure the costs in the setting up,
operation of, and provision of financial security and closure and after-care for a
period of at least 30 years (post closure) shall be covered by the price to be
charged for the disposal of waste at the facility. The statement required under
Section 53A(5) of said Acts is to be included as part of the AER.
Risks of non-implementation
 Impediment to the development of waste infrastructure higher up the waste
hierarchy
 Would be in breach of polluter pays principle
 Firesales
 Landfills closing with inadequate provision for Closure & Aftercare costs
Background
 Complaints to EPA regarding low gate fees since late 2009
 landfill operators,industry representative bodies, political, Public
 Had not been actively enforced to that point; OEE developed a survey to
bring some order to the area
 Engaged with CCMA on the matter
 Surveys completed for 2008, 2009 and 2010
 Falling Waste Volumes
 Total revenue down from approx. €142 million to €86 million
 Falling Landfill gate fees
 Number of open MSW landfills down from 30 in 2009 to 19 in Q4 2011
 Non compliances issued in April 2010 to 16 landfills
 Priority item in Focus on Landfilling Report 2010 and in 2011 Landfill
sectoral enforcement plan communicated to licensees
Waste disposed to landfill
Qty disposed (tonnes)
2,500,000
2,000,000
1,500,000
1,000,000
500,000
0
2007
2008
2009
2010
Landfill gate fees
Gate fee (€)
90
85
80
75
70
65
60
55
50
45
40
2008
2009
2010
Section 53A Model
 Not a gate fee issue per se; more one of an overall charging strategy
 EPA has no statutory basis for setting a minimum gate fee
 Need to bring a consistency to the information supplied
 Developed the S53A model in 2011 and trialled in field
 All landfills to use the model in 2012 for compliance purposes
 OEE will assess returns and look for anomalies and perform audits
S53A Model – landfill capacity
 Total disposal capacity over the entire lifecycle of the landfill including full cells,
active cells and cells to be constructed in future
 With planning permission and waste licence
 Defined by top of basal/side liner and bottom of cap
 Disposal only, deduct for cover
 Used to allocate acquisition costs, some development costs and
restoration and aftercare costs
 Total constructed disposal capacity over the entire lifecycle of cells that are fully
constructed
 Used to allocate development, capping and some leachate management
costs associated with those cells
S53A Model – revenue
 Revenue and costs unrelated to the landfilling activity are excluded, e.g.
composting facilities or CA
 Exclude VAT and levy
 Revenues associated with the following are included:
 Waste accepted for disposal
 Waste accepted for daily or intermediate cover
 Gas utilisation
 Other, e.g. waste accepted for capping
 The relevant period for charging is from the date of commencement of disposal
to the date of cessation of disposal.
S53A Model – operating costs
 Operating costs include, for example:
 Staff
 Monitoring and control
 Administrative costs
 Resources (electricity & fuel)
 Data management and reporting
 These are allocated year by year post S53A
S53A Model – acquisition and development costs
 Shared infrastructure essentially refers to all infrastructure outside of the cells,
for example:
 Land, roads, weighbridge, wheelwash, fencing, buildings, carpark
 Drainage, interceptors, settlement ponds/lagoons, oil separators
 Plant, machinery, vehicles
 Monitoring infrastructure – wells, LFG monitors, flow meters, dust gauges,
met station etc.
 Flare
 Leachate lagoons, tanks
 Services (surface water, foul water, watermain, power)
 Bunded oil storage
 Waste quarantine area
S53A Model – acquisition and development costs
 Shared infrastructure (continued)
 SCADA & telemetry
 Traffic management barriers
 CCTV
 Alarms, e.g. gas alarm systems in buildings, high level alarms on tanks
and lagoons
 Spill control equipment
 Wind sock
 Lighting
 Planning permission and waste licence application costs not included
 Allocated year by year post S53A on the basis of the amount of waste
accepted for disposal that year as a % of the total disposal capacity of the
landfill
S53A Model – fully constructed cells
 Development costs include, for example:
 Excavation and replacement of soft materials
 Grading to formation levels
 Embankments
 Basal liner system
 Leachate collection layer
 Side slope risers
 Capping costs - incurred & future
 Leachate costs - incurred & future to close
 Allocated year by year post S53A on the basis of the amount of waste
accepted for disposal that year as a % of the total constructed disposal
capacity of the landfill
S53A Model – restoration and aftercare costs
 Restoration and aftercare costs include, for example:
 Leachate cost post closure
 Aftercare
 Monitoring
 Security
 Allocated year by year post S53A on the basis of the amount of waste
accepted for disposal that year as a % of the total disposal capacity of the
landfill
Reporting
 s53areturns@epa.ie
 Can be on basis of financial year or calendar year
 To end of April in 2012
 Form must be completed in full and returned
 Confidential information – S39 of the EPA Acts, FoI
and AIE.