News from down the country

Water extraction, waste, quarrying and some court reports

Last Wednesday up to 60 members of the Shannon Protection Alliance (SPA) staged a protest outside Dail Eireann against proposals to extract water from Lough Derg or Lough Ree to feed Dublin city’s growing need for water. Martin McEnroe, SPA chairperson, said ‘If water is taken from Lough Derg to Dublin it is gone forever and there may not be enough left for our own future development needs in the sixteen counties that border the Shannon system’ while Seamus Morris, SF councilor who is also a member of the Shannon Basin Advisory Council said ‘To me, giving away the Shannon water to Dublin is the same as giving Shell the rights to take gas from the Corrib Field off the Mayo coast. It doesn’t make sense.’ Paddy Mackey, spokesperson for the North Tipperary branch of an Taisce described the proposal a a ‘smash and grab raid’ and, predicting that Dublin water services would eventually be privatized making huge profits for companies extracting Shannon water for free, said ‘It all stinks that big companies will end up the beneficiaries of this’. (Source: Nenagh Guardian 4/10/08, pp. 1,10,11.)

The Information Commissioner and Ombudsman (sic) has ordered Kildare County Council to make available to the Hill of Allen Action Group (HAAG) documents relating to Roadstone’s quarry at the Hill of Allen that the Council has tried to keep secret for more than a year. The documents are believed to show how Roadstone has successfully avoided applying for planning permission for the Hill of Allen quarry. A HAAG spokesperson said ‘The Council has persevered in denying the public its right to see these documents. Maybe now we’ll finally get some answers’. (Source: Leinster Leader 2/10/08, pp.1,2).

The Derryguile and Kyletalesha Residents Association (DKRA) has appealed to An Bord Pleanala against a decision by Laois County Council to allow AES –now owned by Bord na Mona- to retain its waste facility at the Kyletalesha landfill which has operated without permission for the last three years. AES wants to more than double its capacity to nearly 100,000 tonnes annually. The DKRA statement says ‘If an ordinary man (sic) in the street was found to have built a shed or room outside planning regulations he (sic) would be told to take it down. So this organization, which has operated outside of planning for three years plus, should also be ordered to cease operations’. (Source: Leinster Express 1/10/08 p.5)

Local opposition is mounting to a proposal by Go Recycling for a planned waste transfer station at Doreen, near Castleconnell, Limerick. Local objections –from community groups, fishing clubs and fisheries conservators, centre on possible pollution, ‘intolerable’ traffic and a threat to the local fisheries. ‘Opposition to the proposal is growing. The fishermen (sic) met this week and decided to oppose the plan. Montpelier community group have already lodged an objection and Castleconnell boat club are very concerned too’ according to Mick Murtagh, chairperson of Montpelier community group. (Source: Limerick Leader 4/10/08, p. 2)

Residents of the Kilmessan and Dunsany areas of Co. Meath are to hold a meeting on 6th October in Dunsany Parish Hall to organize objections to the proposal by Kilsaran Concrete to extend its present quarrying operations at Swainstown, Co. Meath and to build a block-making operation there. Last year An Bord Pleanala upheld objections against a previous application for block-making there. Those who savour irony will be pleased to know that one objector last year was the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government which said the development was in close proximity to a number of national monuments which are important components of the archaeological heritage in the environs of the Hill of Tara. (Source: Meath Chronicle 4/10/08, p. 4)

Shellfish farmers, finfish farmers, fishing people and local residents of Derrinumera, near Newport, Co. Mayo celebrated this week when An Bord Pleanala refused permission to Mayo County Council to pump treated leachate from Mayo’s largest landfill site at Derrinukmera into Clew Bay, which is an important shellfood and seafood production area, as well as a salmon fishery. (Source: Connaught Telegraph 30/9/08, pp.1a,2a,5a)

Premier Proteins was fined Euro 1500 on two counts of breaching a pollution control order in a case taken by the EPA, whose solicitor told the court that 60 complaints regarding the smell of rotten particles from the meat rendering plant at Poolboy, Co. Galway, had been received between May and December 2007, with residents complaining they were forced to close windows, bring in washing and were unable to go outside. One local resident, Mick O’Hehir, said he had personally logged over 700 odour incidents and made dozens of complaints while another, Anita Killeen, said ‘We are being deprived of the basic need to breathe fresh air on a daily basis.’ (Source: Connacht Tribune 3/10/08, p.10)

Gannon’s Brothers Ltd. of Glenamaddy, Co. Galway was fined 1750 Euro, and two members of the company John R. Gannon and Alan Gannon were fined 1750 Euro each along with individual cost fines off Euro 1872 for carrying out quarrying without planning permission at Ardmore, Donamon, Co. Roscommon last February in a case brought by Roscommon County Council. (Roscommon Champion 30/9/08, p 14)

Quarry operator Vincent Fenlon withdrew his plea of guilty in a planning offence case heard before Enniscorthy District Court last Wednesday relating to failure to comply with an enforcement order requiring him to cease ‘unauthorised evacuation’ at a site in Ballysimon, Monageer, Co. Wexford. The case will now be heard on October 15th. (Source Enniscorthy Guardian 1/10/08 p.11)