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Flooding in Cork
 cork |
environment |
press release
 Tuesday November 24, 2009 15:12 by maire - C.H.A.S.E.
Climate Change and future building on flooding plains.
While we all reel in horror at what has happened to the inhabitants in Cork City because of flooding' why on earth has it taken 8 years and hundreds of thousands of euros for the inhabitants of the harbour of Cork to get someone in planning to recognise that building a toxic or municipal plant on a flooding site on a crumbling coastline at a time of climate change is lunacy.
CHASE
Cork Harbour Alliance
For a Safe Environment
Www.chaseireland.org
PRESS RELEASE - 24 November, 2009
INDAVERS INCINERATOR SITE FLOODED AGAIN
The site in Ringaskiddy, Co Cork, where Indaver Ireland have applied to build two incinerators is again seriously flooded. Warnings of flooding on this site were given at the recent Oral Hearing by Hydrogeologist, Shane Bennett and the Office of Public Works (OPW). Photos attached (Sat 21 Nov, high res on request) show the proposed hazardous waste storage area completely submerged.
Local resident, Audrey Hogan, Secretary of the Ringaskiddy Residents Association said “Seeing this area underwater is not new. We know this site floods, we see it regularly, and the area has been identified as high risk by the OPW. That alone should be grounds for a planning refusal.” (OPW flood maps - http://www.floodmaps.ie/View/Default.aspx)
CHASE Chairperson, Mary O’Leary said “The World Health Organisation clearly states that Hazardous Waste Facilities should not be built on flood plains. This site clearly fails that Selection Criteria and in addition to repeated flooding episodes, successive reports by the OPW and EPA have pinpointed the Ringaskiddy coastal area as vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and flooding.
Flooding in the storage area could cause a major accident scenario and engineering solutions proposed will only worsen soakage in the surrounding areas, increasing risk to students in the Maritime College, and potentially cutting off access to the College and Haulbowline. No insurer in their right mind would give flood insurance to this plant, even if it does get planning.”
The flooding issue was raised at the 2009 Oral Hearing where Representatives from the Office of Public Works (OPW) in attendance confirmed that there was an expectation of exceptionally high tides and surges in the area. They repeated concerns that the site was highly vulnerable, and expressed further concern about access to the site in the case of flooding, citing the 28/29 October 2004 floods on the proposed site as very significant.
Further evidence presented to An Bord Pleanala by Hydrogeologist Shane Bennett, who referred to a letter submitted into evidence by climatologist, Prof John Sweeney, left no doubt about site unsuitability. Mr Bennett, giving his flooding assessment, said that combining a 1m sea level rise* (ref Prof John Sweeney) with a 3m surge for a 1 in 100 year storm (Oxford 1989) would suggest a 4m flood level, which when combined with a 4.2m Spring Tide Level "would have catastrophic consequences for this site".
Flood levels during the October 2004 storm surges (2.85metres OD) would have resulted in the entire waste transfer area being flooded.
A decision by An Bord Pleanala on the Ringaskiddy Incinerator is due by 4 December.
ENDS
Contacts:
Mary O’Leary, 086 8177737, 021 4811952
Linda FitzPatrick, 087 7410849, 021 4374506
Audrey Hogan, 087 7729035
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Comments (21 of 21)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21Is the suggestion that they build on a hilly site, elsewhere in the state or is the opposition to incineration per se?
A site like this can be flood-proofed. There are, I have no doubt. engineering solutions.
My opposition is against incineration under any circumstances.
There is a cancer epidemic, that is my concern.
Be careful of this tactic, which while valid could be counterproductive.
Incineration KILLS!!!!
A good opportunity for our organisation to make the point that if you humans want to help the situation you need to plant trees. In the short term it gives you hope. In the medium term the trees will help to bind the soil together and slow down the water. In the long term they may even help stabilise the climate and repair some of the imbalance that you are helping create.
You do not need permission for this. You know it is necessary.
Get on with it and show some inter-species solidarity.
I am all for planting trees all over Ireland, and I know from the knowledge I have read that incineration - burning resources will kill, through respiratory illnesses. but flooding deserves to be looked at in isolation with planning. We have been urged to -
Adopt a sequential approach to flood risk management and guide
development away from areas that have been identified as being at risk through
flood risk assessment; In areas of high risk, for example you should see water
compatible developments such as docks and marinas, amenity open space,
outdoor sports and recreation, while other more vulnerable development should
be directed towards areas of minimal or no flood risk..
Local knowledge of flooding in areas is being totally ignored, Who takes responsibility for bad planning.
Yes, as Rational Ecologist Rightly states, incineration KILLS, but the authorities seem not to recognise that. And the decision due next week is supposed to be a GOOD PLANNING decision. Putting a incinerator on a floodplain, as well as being conrary to WHO guidelines is clearly a BAD Planning decision.
The WHO guidelines for siting hazardous waste facilities says that these facilities shouldn't be built on flood plains. Indaver seem to think that it says engineer a solution, but it doesn't, it says don't build.
It isn't a case obviously of put it somewhere else on a higher site, the recently launched Internatioal Policy Review recommendations, should negate the need for incinerators, and certainly make them a very high risk for any investor.
But it's this proposal, this site, that we await a decision on, with one week to go, that has flooded. Surely, this is a sign that the higher power above has already made a decision.
>>" Yes, as Rational Ecologist Rightly states, incineration KILLS, but the authorities seem not to recognise that"
The authorities *DO* recognise that incineration creates micro-particles which kill.
Think about that.
Hints: Fools or Crooks, Fools and Crooks.
-----------
Science:
http://galwaytent.blogspot.com/2009/09/italian-science-....html
Green Party:
Floods allow J Gormley, D Boyle & Greens to wash their hands of the EPA:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_qdRqFPGZw2o/ShCip-V-reI/AAAAAAAABjM/xzj2oo4ta_Q/s400/EPA_Insider_002.jpg
Green Party: EPA-Ireland is Utterly Compromised.
http://galwaytent.blogspot.com/2008/12/green-party-cull....html
If you had knowledge on how to avoid a catastrophic flood in the future, you would spread the word.
Well, representatives of 30,000 people in the Cork area have told the Authorities, the planners, the EPA that a developer is attempting to build a toxic incinerator with a transfer station on a listed OPW flooding site, a site predicted to experience in the future frequent storm surges and flooding but nobody is listening.
Incineration is the concrete expression of the insanity of our consumption-culture. We may argue about floods and other practical issues, which indeed we are correct to do, however, what we need is a more radical analysis of the way we live. We abuse the planet and we abuse children on a daily, casual basis. Ours is a deeply flawed, sociopathic system and we need to say so-OUT LOUD.
I hope the floods issue defeats the incinerator, however, if it doesn't do we continue to enrich the legal profession?
Máire people are listening
Splash, I really do hope they are listening.
Jane Hennessy, Communications Manager, Indaver Ireland, in the Irish Times, states that their expert flooding advisor proposes to raise the height of a key section of land on the Ringaskiddy site by two metres to "provide for sophisticated water management systems on site." What the hell does that mean?A euphemism for flooding by rising tides. ?
Trying to alleviate the threat of flooding to an OPW recognised flooding site (twice flooding in the last five years) is flying in the face of all warnings of risk by virtue of climate change. .It is an enormous building with a toxic transfer station near the road and bus stop and is on top of a crumbling coast line.
God help us if they are not listening.
Maire. Is it not completely and blatantly obvious that the powers-that-be are not listening?
Are we not in denial here? They haven't listened for 7 years so why should they start now. The floods angle will not-I hope I am wrong-stop this insane development. What's the next option? More money for solicitors and so-called experts. Playing the game by their rules does not work. A more radical approach is needed. By that I mean, the local community reclaiming their community and calling this system what it is-INSANE.
I really hope I am proved wrong, however, I fear I won't be.
Engineering solutions will be brought forward and that will deal with the flood, in the eyes of the public.
I wish you well.
Invader has been trying for nine years to get the builders onto this site. It has spent millions in the effort.
It still hasn't made it.
That sums up Indaver's attitude to flooding in Cork Harbour. Cork people have spend half a million euros over eight years trying to tell these people what they do not want to hear. They can't build their incinerators in Ringaskiddy.
Maybe if flood waters come up their ankles, and up to their knees, contaminated with toxins they may feel the evil.
Hi Jo Jo. In your scenario the incinerator has been built, I'm afraid that that would be a nightmare. No point being wise after-the-fact. I am keen to get a debate going on this issue, and others, on the tactics used and the playing " by their rules " approach. I notice no-one from CHASE has addressed my question to this effect.
Rational, for all its millions thrown around and for all your opinion about playing the rules being a waste Invader still hasn't got a digger into the site after ten years of trying.
That's down to CHASE and others imho.
What have you been doing yourself?
Hello Splash. In answer to your question:I have been DOING a hell of a lot, as it happens! My attempt to open a debate on tactics is a valid one. This may not be the forum for that, however.
The question of the next step is vital. I have always been a supporter of CHASE( in practical ways ). I hope I am proven wrong but if not, we have to consider where this goes from here.
Took a drive down to Ringaskiddy yesterday to look at the sea and check on the trees that have been planted there on the site over the last 5 years or so.
They're all looking rather nice, starting to show above the brambles all around the foot entrance to the site.
John,
I had a walk myself down in Ringaskiddy, and looked at Gobi beach.
Wondered at the family walking their dog on the beach, and how things could change for them with the simply loss of this facility, by the building of two incinerators on a confined site which is prone to flooding.
If we are really planning for the future it can never happen, the incinerators would endanger the public.
The flooding from storm surges I am afraid is predicted by scientists, and more frequently.
Have you looked at who is going to insure this facility? They will need insurance against floods and storm-surges. I don't think any insurance company, in their right mind, will insure Indaver.
The insurance companies are becoming very concerned by Climate Change ( enhanced ) and I think it would be productive to explore this angle.
Could not agree with you more. This was brought up again and again with anyone who would listen at oral hearings and with the EPA. Indaver recently through their spokeperson J. Hennessy denied that their site flooded, -' only the road '. please refer to the photos in the Gallery of the Chase website www.chaseireland.org showing clearly that the road floods OK but also their site itself. Insurance companies please take note.
Cork Harbour Alliance
For A Safe Environment
www.chaseireland.org
PRESS RELEASE - 22 December, 2009
Hammond Lane Explosion Highlights Need For Planning Sanity
Several Units of the Firebrigade struggled for over an hour and a half to bring flames from an explosion at the Hammond Lane metalworks in Ringaskiddy under control this evening. The Hamond Lane site is enclosed on three sides by the site on which Indaver Ireland plan to build hazardous and municipal waste incinerators.
The explosion, which happened shortly before 5pm, was heard throughout Ringaskiddy and visible from Cobh. An eyewitnesses from Ringaskiddy said "The blaze has been going strong for an hour and a half, fumes are absolutely noxious, there are about 10 fire-brigades battling with the fire, and explosions keep happening all the time."
Concerned residents in Cobh have tried to find out what is burning, however CHASE Chairperson Mary O'Leary said "There is no environmental service available. Phones have rung out in the EPA and Cork County Council, as big black palls of smoke still pour across Cork Harbour towards Cobh.
More than ever this highlights the need for planning sanity - this is an explosion right in the middle of a would be incinerator site, where highly flammable hazardous wastes are to be stored, and which is already classified as a high risk Seveso site. The hazard posed is unacceptable to people living and working in Cork Harbour. That hazard has been brought to life this afternoon, and we need An Bord Pleanala to recognise this."