New 10-minute film on Mayo, Policing The Pollution

by Starstruck - WSM (Pers Cap) Sun Nov 11, 2007 23:08

A great summary of the situation thusfar.
This film is very suitable for an international audience,spreading it throughout the internet will be a good start.
Well done on your work and thank you!
Shell to Sea!

by Chrissie Sun Nov 11, 2007 23:08

It's long overdue that Shell's & the Gardai's iniquitous behaviour in Erris should be exposed & judged. Every little or big thing you can do for Erris & its people & environment, please do it! 'For evil to triumph, it is only necessary that decent people do nothing.'

by Niall Harnett Sun Nov 11, 2007 23:43

Very well done Oscar.

by jd Mon Nov 12, 2007 00:13

Anybody know the names of the Mayo council officials who are responsible for enforcing
water regulations?
They should be named and shamed and forced to resign.

by JB Mon Nov 12, 2007 00:30

packed a lot into ten minutes. Thanks for the info. i'll pass it on. I'll have to make that trip up to Erris sooner rather than later. I'll bring me own water though...

by Pat Mon Nov 12, 2007 21:31

The video is factually incorrect

Claims of pollution are totally false.. It is true that levels of Aluminium in drainage water leaving the has exceeded the limits set my Mayo County Council.

There are 2 issues here

Firstly the council set a limit of drinking water quality on drainage water from a construction which is almost unattainable in heavy rain conditions.

Secondly - Mayo County Council also monitor all the streams in the catchment of Carrowmore lake. Every single stream in the Carrowmore catchment (which have no connection with the construction activity) experience level in excess of 200ug/l, some have been recorded at 2500ug/l. This is something which Mr Monaghan knows only too well but I'm sure he forgot to you!

There is no threat to drinking water in the area. The HSE and EPA regularly check the water quality from Water treatment works and if there were excedances in the final water quality then the supply would be suspended.

It is very easy to post stuff like this on an anonymous website..

by Maura Harrington - S2S; Davitt League Mon Nov 12, 2007 21:42

Oh dear! What's anonymous about Indy or Current.com?? Of course one has to provide one's email to Current, hence Pat can only bleat here while holding on to his precious anonymity.

Of course you could consider suing either site for publishing what you claim to be 'factually incorrect' stuff but then you meet the same dilemma of plain Pat ...

by JB Mon Nov 12, 2007 22:34

"There is no threat to drinking water in the area. The HSE and EPA regularly check the water quality from Water treatment works and if there were excedances in the final water quality then the supply would be suspended."

Wouldn't trust the HSE with yesterday's newspaper, nevermind water readings or (cancer test results)
as for the EPA... well, do I even need to type anything about that shower?

What fact was incorrect in the documentary exactly? You claim omission and bias, but you don't say what falsehood was presented as fact.

by Oscar Beard - IMC UK/Reel New/Freelance Journalist Tue Nov 13, 2007 00:51

Simple answer to your questions, mater.

As others have pointed out, my email is on Current Tv, email me direct and discuss this.

And if anything is in factual or incorrect then I expect a nice law suit from Shell or Mayo County Council, who all know me very well for sticking my nose into their business for nearly a year, and they know where I live.

But if they want to sue me, then they have to sue More4 News, Channel 4 News and ITN as a whole entity.

See here:

http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/society/environme...68972

Don't like to blow my own trumpet, but see you in court, okay!

I may be poor, but I'm very well respected for my work. Love to see them try anything against me.

It will only make the story bigger, thanks to my contacts in the media.

So, please do.

There is a reason they have done nothing to me - it's because I am right and I've caught them at it, and they dare not challenge even a small time journalist like me on this.

They have been caught out, plain and simple.

Don't waste you comments on the independent media who first exposed this.

And we're sending this story bigger than you could ever imagine.

Again, I say, see you in court!

by D Tue Nov 13, 2007 06:08

"What fact was incorrect in the documentary exactly? You claim omission and bias, but you don't say what falsehood was presented as fact."

There are many falsehoods and biased statements throughout the video. A couple of examples are:

1. The statement that the Corrib pipeline "will be the highest pressure pipeline in oil and gas history"

2. The speaker who says that other corporations in Ireland pay tax at 12.5% but Shell will pay none. The fact is that Shell and the other Corrib partners will pay tax at 25% - double the rate for other corporations.

by J Tue Nov 13, 2007 08:32

Oh dear!
The video is about Pollution but D is trying to focus on peripheral economic and technical
issues. The attempt to divert attention won't work.

by Ted Wed Nov 28, 2007 19:04

"I am recommending that water run-off from the terminal construction site and discharges from the terminal when in operation be closely monitored and that local people be kept fully informed of the
results of such monitoring."
PETER CASSELLS
July 2006
******************************
"The value of the total aluminium exceeded the discharge limit of 200ug/l. The values recorded for the 30th October 2007 was 655 ug/L and on the 4th of November 2007,245 ug/L.
Actions Taken:The following actions are on going;
1. On going surveillance of site drainage outside the main footprint area
2. Close monitoring of total aluminium results on site
3. Reducing the extent of open drainage outside the footprint area by additional piping works.
4. Improvement of road surface along drainage network."

http://www.mayococo.ie/en/News/GasTerminal/Environmenta...n.pdf

You will notice that Mayo C.C. did not issue any warning or prosecution for the above recent breaches.
What a pity they aren't always as eager as when it comes to moving protesters off a SAC
to make way for illegal drilling by Shell/RPS
Their idea of keeping people fully informed is to publish it on a website (sometimes). What's wrong with
the local papers? Does MCC not consider that not everybody has access to the web, or is it doing the
bare minimum?

by GasMan Thu Nov 29, 2007 06:39

sure 25% tax rate on net profits...After they write off 25 years of exploration costs (100% of them). With a good creative accountant, (and perhaps a few brown envelopes! are you listening Ray?), that makes....oh...25% of nothing = nothing. As noted by others, shell often posts losses. Hard to believe but true. (Yet they keep beavering away. You have to admire their enthusiasm given that they make no money. I guess they must just love the work they do..but i digress)

Assume there are no accidents in the lifetime of the enterprise.
If you take the extra infrastructure the irish taxpayer will be paying for to utilise the gas at full market rate (not to mention state costs pushing their agenda through the courts and the costs to the state of regularly beating up protestors on their behalf) and the loss of fishing and environment and the free coillte land we gave them into consideration

and then consider the potential costs to the taxpayer of the cleanup operation (if you think shell will do this then look at their past record) then it will actually COST us money to give our gas away to shell!! After which we will still be left with a damaged environment.

In other words, under the current terms, extracting the gas makes absolutely no sense whatsoever from our point of view.

And if shell do decide to supply the gas to Ireland (no guarantees built into contract) we will just build up a worse dependency than we already have on gas as a means of large scale power generation which will delay vital investment in sustainable energy.

Cold venting of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, may also contribute to our emissions bill. This is not mentioned much. The Government just quietly pay the bill without telling us. Using our taxes of course.

IMHO We would be better off leaving the gas where it is and at least then we get to keep our environment, fishing, and tourism options intact.

by Sternn Sun Dec 16, 2007 07:10

This is a great vid, but why the feck would ANYONE post on a site like Current.Com? They embed/encrypt their vids so you can't repost them easily. Shouldn't we be supporting MORE people seeing this and NOT restricting such information? This seems very counter-productive. Whoever made the call to make the video available there and only there is a feckin muppet..

by MacE Tue Dec 18, 2007 12:47

Good stuff, Oscar. Keep up the good work.

by Jack - mindfreedom Fri Feb 01, 2008 21:32

Was there a complaint made against the garda that attacked Pat o Donnell ?