$hell keep these toxins at sea

mayo | environment | opinion/analysis

Friday November 10, 2006 15:57

by Danny Conway

Doona, BallyCroy, Westport, Co. Mayo.

To whom it concerns,
I must start off by saying that I approve of the Corrib gas coming ashore. I attended a meeting in Belmullet 30 months ago and I voted for this project to go ahead. There were over 800 people there and all but 5 voted in favour. I later worked on the project at Ballinaboy but no longer do so.

Until recently I believed that it was natural clean odourless gas being piped to Ballinaboy and an odour being added there. That's not so even through the main component to be piped to Ballinaboy in the proposed pipe will be gas, there will also be substances such as Mercury Lead and Arsenic. These substances are to be removed from the gas at Ballinaboy and piped out to the shore via a pipe to be layered parallel to the incoming one.

My concerns are health related and the weather we get around here doesn't help. On 12 July 1997 and 19 Sept 2003 we had the heaviest rainfall in living memory. If this rainfall comes again like that it would cause the terminal to flood. The result would be the contamination of Carramore Lake our water source. There already has been problems with peat silt escaping from the site at Ballinboy.

I firmly believe that this removal process should take place at sea. If its to expensive to process at the well head then it could be processed on an island or in shallow water. I really hope that Shell in their wisdom will change their minds and keep these toxins at sea far away from our water source.

Yours sincerely
Danny Conway

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Further info on Carramore Lake and off shore platform

by Terence

Fri Nov 10, 2006 20:02

FYI,

Carramore Lake is already polluted with high levels of aluminium. This has been discussed and documented here http://www.indymedia.ie/article/75224 already.

The Shell To Sea campaign are not neccessarily asking that the offshore platform be placed 70 miles out to sea where the well head is, but they would be open to a offshore platform more closer to shore and even in a relatively protected bay. This would eliminate much of the cost of a deep water platform and easy many problems. On this platform, much of the processing could be done and most importantly pressure could be greatly stepped down.

Both Shell, the State and the corporate media studiously avoid mentioning these much more reasonable aims and of course any mention of the pollution.

You mention: I really hope that Shell in their wisdom will change their minds ....
You have got to understand that wisdom doesn't even enter the debate here with regard to Shell. The only thing that matters is the bottom line. They have already successfully got the State on side. Elsewhere around the world they have successfully plundered the natural resources from various countries and local populations have been brutally suppressed as in Nigeria and the environment damaged in practically every case but obviously it is more in the areas where they can get away with it since disregarding environmental safeguards translates into money not spent and thus more profit.

You really have to get it into your head that Shell don't care about you, your neighbours, your rights, or your environment. They count for nothing. But I think you already see that now and I welcome your recognition of the facts.

With regard to the meeting 30 months ago (2.5 yrs which would be April 2004?) you mentioned there were 800 people present. What exactly were they asked to vote on at that meeting. What were they told. Who counted the votes and how.

Usage of the Gas: At this stage in Ireland about 30% to 40% of our electricity is generated via natural gas and much of our heating is with natural gas. In the Netherlands, a few years ago they introduced the idea of an energy audit on a house measuring its overall energy efficiency and you can't sell a house without one. Also insulation standards in Ireland were recently delayed by several years and around 200,000 homes were built during the delay period -all of this documented on a recent RTE prime time program. If we had considerably higher insulation standards in our homes we would need far less natural gas. But we must that chance. As documented on Prime Time, the Dept of environment was aware of the effect of the delay but did nothing. This condemns us to using more gas. Clearly there is something to be investigated here.

Likewise if we used electricity much efficiently, we would near far less gas. There are many things, in terms of tax, incentives and technical that could be done here, but you can be sure they won't be done. Certainly not if Shell has any influence over it.

Global Peak Gas is probably going to occur sometime after Peak Oil and the estimate for Peak Gas is 2020. We should be planning to make Corrib Gas last as long as possible and we should use it as slowly as possible, because after that time there will be real big problems. Kinsale Gas is effectively now gone. We basically wasted it via our crap insulation standards and other sloppy uses.
Shell being a private company will seek to maximize profit and like nearly every other gas field operator will use methods to extract the gas as fast as possible. This is quite clear in direct oppositon to the medium term strategic interests of the people of Ireland.

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$hell keep these toxins at sea

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