Latest from Glengad, Mayo - 29th July

mayo | environment | news report Tuesday July 29, 2008 15:24 by Rudiger - Shell to Sea

The latest from Glengad beach, were Shell have occupied a section of the beach and fenced it off from the local community

From the Work Statements for the Glengad beach work that have been finally received from the Dept of Energy & Natural Resources it is clear the Shell are currently breaching a number of conditions that they themselves drew up. These Work Statements have been sought for over 3 weeks now and were only made public when journalists started complaining about the Department hiding documentation regarding the Glengad works. Some of the breaches involved are:
1. Shell stated that “a pedestrian zone will be created along the shoreline. This will allow pedestrians to access the shoreline through gates and a walkway”. This not in place so the beach is currently split in two.
2. A fair bit of litter from the work is currently being left on the beach. This litter includes steel off-cuts, ends of welding rods and disused marking rods.
3. The stone that is currently being used to create the causeway down to the water contains a lot of silt and dirt and so the water around the area is being polluted.
4. The fenced of beach section is currently about twice as wide as the drawing plans show.

Relating to the lack of a right away through the beach, yesterday a protestor crossed the fence through a section that the tide had moved and was subsequently dragged around 50m by the security. 6 security then formed a group huddle and illegally detained the protestor on the beach for over 30 minutes. The gardaí then arrived and after threatening to arrest the protestor, they drove him to the top gate and let him go. The gardaí who arrived at the scene refused to take a complaint from the protestor about the illegal detention claiming that they didn’t have the facilities there.
It is worth remembering that the permission that they are currently relying on to do the “exempted” onshore part of the work was that signed by Frank Fahy in 2002. Seeing as this section of the pipe will potentially be running at 345 bar pressure, it isn’t an exaggeration to label it the most dangerous part of the whole project. It is incredible that this pipeline section is being allowed to be covered by an exemption that precedes the 42 separate landslides that occurred in the immediate area in September 2003.

Current dredging work is also taking place about 200m off shore from the fence in which a dredger is digging the sea bed and placing the dug-up material on a barge. The barge then travels about 150 metres away and then dumps the material. Read about their sensitivity to the marine life here: http://www.indymedia.ie/article/88495

Finally the man who was injured while in Garda custody when he was arrested along with 12 others in Glengad last Tuesday is still in Castlebar hospital. Some of the arrested people say that they saw Gardaí dragging the man away by the arms and legs after he had asked for a doctor and was screaming in pain.

Todays' Irish Times has 2 articles relating to the works in Glengad
Pipe section exempted from planning approval:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2008/0729/1....html

'Paradise lost for residents of 'Gods own country' in Mayo:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2008/0729/1....html