News from down the country

national | environment | news report Saturday February 28, 2009 21:35 by Contaminated Crow

A powerline, water extraction, a sewage treatment plant, a telemast, a LNG pipeline, a landfill and a windfarm

Over 80 people attended a meeting last week in the Royal Hotel, Boyle, Co. Roscommon, organized by SAFE (residents against overhead lines), which is opposed to the erection by the ESB of pylons along a 12-mile stretch in the Boyle area. The meetings was addressed by Martina Ruddy and Sheila Tipper from SAFE and also by prominent members of the opposition to Shell in Rossport, Co. Mayo, who shared their experiences of the anti-Shell campaign. Next month SAFE intends to join a proposed all-Ireland lobby group which will bring together groups around the country, north and south, who are opposing power lines. (Roscommon Herald 24/2/09, p.19).

A group of representatives of water users in the Lough Derg area met in Nenagh, Co. Tipperary last week to discuss a plan of action to stop the proposed extraction of water from Lough Derg for Dublin city. The group has called a meeting of all bodies interested in protecting Lough Derg for next Wednesday, March 4th at 7.30PM in the Lough Derg Yatch Club. (Nenagh Guardian 28/2/09, p.24).

The An Suthan Pier Committee has welcomed the news that Galway County Council is withdrawing its application to site a sewage treatment plant close to the pier in Carraroe, Co. Galway. (Connacht Tribune 27/2/08, p.6).

An Bord Pleanala has upheld Mayo County Council’s decision to refuse Eircom permission for a 15-metre telemast at Kildoon outside Louisburgh, an application that was objected to by seven parties locally. (Mayo News 24/2/09, p.7).

Safety Before LNG (SBL), which operates as an umbrella group for local protest groups, has appealed against the An Bord Pleanala decision to grant permission for Shannon LNG’s LNG pipeline from Tarbert to Foynes, Co. Limerick. Denouncing the application as a ‘corruption of the planning process’ SBL claimed the decision to split applications for the terminal and the pipeline was intended to ‘circumvent a cumulative impact assessment’. (Kerryman (sic) 25/2/09, p.7).

An oral hearing began last Monday in the Marriott Hotel, Ashbourne, Co. Meath, into a proposal by Greenstar to increase its intake of waste at the Knockharley landfill from the current figure of 132,000 tonnes a year to 400,000 tonnes a year, which would result in the landfill being closed 16 years earlier than planned, a company representative told the hearing. (Meath Chronicle 28/2/09, p.6).

A proposal to erect 47 wind turbines in the Brideswell, Dysart and Taughmaconnell areas of south Roscommon by Galetech Energy Developments Ltd. has provoked local anger. Three planning applications for equipment to monitor wind speeds in the areas were withdrawn last week, after being declared incomplete, but are expected to be resubmitted. Local resident Alan Clarkson of Skyvalley , Taughmaconnell, condemining the turbines as ‘a natural environment killer’, intends objecting to the plans when they are resubmitted. (Westmeath Independent 28/2/09, p.2).