News from down the country

national | environment | news report Monday January 19, 2009 02:10 by Contaminated Crow

Two masts, a power plant, a sludge treatment plant, a marina, pylons and two landfills

Over twenty children were withdrawn indefinitely from Glenbeigh National School last week in protest at the proposed erection of a 10-metre telemast by Tetra Ireland Ltd. at Ballinakilly Lower, Gleneigh, Co. Kerry. Local residents’ group Glenbeigh Residents Against Health Hazards (GRAHH) have collected over 100 signatures against the mast and traveled to Dublin on Wednesday to meet Tetra Ireland Ltd. Clara Leahy of GRAHH said the group was ‘confident of a positive outcome’. (Kerry’s Eye 15/1/09, pp.1,22).

Electricity company Veridian has shelved plans for a 100 million Euro oil-fired power plant at Dunmoe, outside Navan, Co. Meath. The company told local residents that the proposed plant, which had caused major concern locally, was not viable. (Meath Chronicle 17/1/09, pp.1,10).

The Ballinasloe Town Manager told town councillors that they could not re-zone 4 acres of land next to the Premier Proteins rendering plant which is subject to a planning application for a sludge treatment plant which is facing vigorous local opposition. Councillors were considering submissions on the new Town Plan, which included a request from the Ballinasloe Environmental Alliance that the lands be de-zoned while Poolboy Community Development Council asked that they be returned to their original agricultural zoning. (Connacht Tribune 16/1/09, p.15).

The Ballina Marina Action Group intends to request an official explanation from North Tipperary County Council as to why the County Council did not seek an Environmental Impact Assessment as part of the council’s request for further information on a proposed marina development at Ballina, Co. Tipperary. (Clare Champion 16/1/09, p.6).

Members of North East Pylon Pressure are to meet the Minister for Power and the chief executive of EirGrid in Dublin on Friday to press their demands that EirGrid’s Interconnector be placed underground rather than be routed on overhead pylons. (Northern Standard 15/1/09, pp.1,4; Meath Chronicle 17/1/09, p.6)

An application by Greenstar to An Bord Pleanala under the Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Act to increase waste intake at its Knockharley landfill from 132,000 tonnes a year to 400,000 tonnes was roundly condemned at a meeting of Meath County Council last week. Councillors criticised the landfill’s operation and raised concerns over possible water contamination due to the landfill. (Meath Chronicle 17/1/09, p.4).

Cavan county councillors were informed at a meeting last week that remedial works at Corranure landfill have finished and the County Council is monitoring the situation to ensure these works have successfully curbed the landfill’s odour problem. However while the works were being carried out over the festive season the EPA received 26 complaints from residents between December 17th and January 5th. Mary McDwyer of Cavan Better Waste Management said 'I actually received a written commitment from them that it would be finished and we wouldn’t be affected by the odours over Christmas. Unfortunately it was really bad between Christmas and the New Year here, and I live on the Cootehill Road about one kilometer from the landfill.’ The EPA said it is investigating the facility in co-operation with the local council and will consider all measures, including prosecution, but no final decision has been made. (Anglo-Celt 15/1/09, p.9; Cavan Post 13/1/09, p.4).

Residents of the Mornington Heights estate in Trim, Co. Meath, held a protest last Saturday calling for the removal of a mast from the green area of the estate and for other masts nearby to be relocated to a greenfield site outside the town. Residents also intend to write to the HSE to ask for an investigation of what they say is an unusual incidence of cancer in the estate, though there is no suggestion of a link between the masts and the incidence of illnesses. Residents say nine people have died from cancer in the last few years, while another eleven are undergoing treatment for cancer. One resident, Kathleen Hackett, said ‘We want the HSE to do a report into health in the area. There is bound to be something causing it. There are 500 people in the estate; no other estate has that rate of cancer. We want the HSE to look at it. We are not going to stop until we get to the bottom of it’, pointing out that the estate was built on a former landfill site. (Meath Chronicle 17/1/09, p.3).