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| The Corrib field was discovered in ] by ], 70km off the west Mayo coast, at 3,500 metres below sea level. | The Corrib field was discovered in ] by ], 70km off the west Mayo coast, at 3,500 metres below sea level. | ||
| ] takes hold of a prone Shell to Sea protester by the throat, ]]] | ] takes hold of a prone Shell to Sea protester by the throat, ]]] | ||
| ==Safety and Environmental Concerns== | |||
| ===Refinery Site=== | |||
| Planning permission for the refinery was refused unequivocally by Senior Planning Inspector Kevin Moore, of ] (the Irish planning authority). His report stated: ''"From a strategic planning perspective, this is the wrong site; from the perspective of Government policy which seeks to foster balanced regional development, this is the wrong site; from the perspective of minimising environmental impact, this is the wrong site; and consequently, from the perspective of sustainable development, this is the wrong site. At a time when the Board is now required, in accordance with the ], to have regard to the proper planning and sustainable development of an area in which a development is proposed to be constructed, it is my submission that the proposed development of a large gas processing terminal at this rural, scenic, and unserviced area on a bogland hill some 8 kilometres inland from the Mayo coastland landfall location, with all its site development works difficulties, public safety concerns, adverse visual, ecological, and traffic impacts, and a range of other significant environmental impacts, defies any rational understanding of the term “sustainability”. It is an irony that this large industrial proposal is linked with a natural gas resource, the exploitation of which adheres to the concept of sustainability."'' | |||
| Following this report, senior Shell executives met with ] ]. Ahern then met with the board of An Bord Pleanála. They agreed to ignore Moore's report, and the refinery was given the green light. | |||
| The cleaning terminal, a large combustion plant, is a huge project. It would require in excess of 120 ]s of power to operate. The power would come from burning off the uncleaned gas condensate, containing ] of ] and ], ], ] and ]. There would be nine chimneys, four of them approximately 140 feet high. These would release carbon dioxide and methane equivalent to the ] potential of 27,000 dairy cows. | |||
| The waste water problem is twofold: | |||
| #There is a pipe to take waste impurities to sea and a perforated perimeter ditch which would surround the drainage from the site. | |||
| #The waste water storage sump is designed to withstand only a few hours of continuous rainfall, though nearby ] had 106 days of consecutive rainfall during the autumn of ]. Overflow from the sump will flow into ], the drinking water supply of 10,000 Erris residents. | |||
| This untreated waste water would contain many toxic substances, including ], ], ], ], ], ], ] and the ] gas ]. Already ] levels in the lake (due to runoff from the construction) are far in excess of ] limits. | |||
| The refinery would be constructed on ]. Shell’s plan to stabilise this involves mixing in ] to form a hard surface. This process has only ever had small field trials and lab tests and creates a reaction which produces the very toxic ]. | |||
| The ] is in the process of producing a report into the environmental effects of the pipeline and its site in Bellanaboy. The report is expected to be finished by September ]. | |||
| ===Pipeline Route=== | |||
| The upstream high pressure gas pipeline that connects the well to the inland refinery site runs through the area of ], through villages and alongside peoples' homes. The pressure inside the pipeline would be up to four times greater than that of the highest pressure ] pipelines and will be going through boggy land with a recent history of serious ]. The gas pipeline would also have adjoining pipelines carrying hydraulic fluid, cleansing acids and a waste pipe, as well as electric cables. | |||
| Frequently described as a "high pressure" pipeline, the pipeline will have an operating pressure of 120 ] and a maximum design pressure of 345 Bar. It is untreated, that is, odourless, without the added smell for detecting leaks. To compare, in ] the gas is refined at sea and piped ashore at a much lower pressure and odorised. The highest pressure Bord Gáis pipelines, in the so-called Transmission network, bringing the gas cross-country or overseas to ], run at 16 – 70 bar pressure. | |||
| The large pressure is necessary as the pipeline would be pumping the gas straight out of the field to the onshore refinery, whereas normally the refining takes place out at sea. This development is so unprecedented that the relevant Irish ] and ] assumes its non-existence, that is, current legislation applies to off-shore upstream pipelines and to on-land ones with similar levels of pressure to those used by Bord Gáis. The Irish government decreed the pipeline was not to be subject to planning permission as they considered it an offshore development, despite the fact that it runs inland for over 9km. | |||
| ===Broadhaven Bay=== | |||
| ] is where Shell want to discharge toxic waste from the refining process. Due to the bay’s circular tidal pattern and semi-enclosed nature this toxic waste is far more likely to stay within the bay rather than be washed out to sea.{{fact|date=September 2007}} | |||
| A ] research team found that the bay was an important breeding and rearing area for ] and ]. They recorded over 220 sightings of seven whale and dolphin species including sightings of the relatively rare ], plus sightings of two ] species and marine mammals such as ] and a ] in Broadhaven Bay and north-west Mayo waters. | |||
| Broadhaven Bay is a ] under ] regulations. According to state heritage agency ] “Broadhaven Bay supports an internationally important number of ]” as well as regionally important populations of other birds. | |||
| The pipeline would pass through the ] ]s/coastal grasslands at one end of Broadhaven Bay. These constitute a habitat unique to northwest Ireland and northwest ]. | |||
| ===Shell's reputation=== | |||
| Quite aside from the immediate safety and environmental concerns, many Erris residents have serious qualms about having Shell as a neighbour given their past record, especially in ] (see ] and ]). | |||
| ==Other issues== | ==Other issues== | ||
Revision as of 12:57, 13 September 2007
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Shell to Sea (in Irish, Shell chun Sáile) is a campaign based in County Mayo, Ireland which successfully opposed the proposed construction of a high-pressure raw gas pipeline through Rossport, and continues to oppose the ongoing construction by Shell of a refinery at Bellanaboy intended to refine the untreated gas from the Corrib gas field. The stated aim of the campaign is that the gas be refined at sea (hence the name), thereby making it safer to transport, before it is brought ashore and past people's houses. In their own words:
"Shell to Sea is an international non violent campaign, rooted in the Erris community. We seek to ensure the proposed Corrib gas terminal and pipeline are constructed offshore, as is best practice. In doing so we seek to highlight the negligent environmental, health, safety, planning and economic consequences of this government backed plan. We are not the property of any party or movement and we disassociate ourselves from negative campaigning and tactics that many media outlets have attempted to associate us with. We have been campaigning for several years and continue to face intimidation, slander and significant hardship as a result. However, we are growing in strength, numbers and confidence. We will remain peaceful, committed and determined in the coming days, weeks months - and years if necessary!"
The Corrib field was discovered in October 1996 by Enterprise Oil, 70km off the west Mayo coast, at 3,500 metres below sea level.
Safety and Environmental Concerns
Refinery Site
Planning permission for the refinery was refused unequivocally by Senior Planning Inspector Kevin Moore, of An Bord Pleanála (the Irish planning authority). His report stated: "From a strategic planning perspective, this is the wrong site; from the perspective of Government policy which seeks to foster balanced regional development, this is the wrong site; from the perspective of minimising environmental impact, this is the wrong site; and consequently, from the perspective of sustainable development, this is the wrong site. At a time when the Board is now required, in accordance with the Local Government (Planning and Development) Act, 2000, to have regard to the proper planning and sustainable development of an area in which a development is proposed to be constructed, it is my submission that the proposed development of a large gas processing terminal at this rural, scenic, and unserviced area on a bogland hill some 8 kilometres inland from the Mayo coastland landfall location, with all its site development works difficulties, public safety concerns, adverse visual, ecological, and traffic impacts, and a range of other significant environmental impacts, defies any rational understanding of the term “sustainability”. It is an irony that this large industrial proposal is linked with a natural gas resource, the exploitation of which adheres to the concept of sustainability."
Following this report, senior Shell executives met with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. Ahern then met with the board of An Bord Pleanála. They agreed to ignore Moore's report, and the refinery was given the green light.
The cleaning terminal, a large combustion plant, is a huge project. It would require in excess of 120 Megawatts of power to operate. The power would come from burning off the uncleaned gas condensate, containing oxides of carbon and nitrogen, sulphur dioxide, methane and ozone. There would be nine chimneys, four of them approximately 140 feet high. These would release carbon dioxide and methane equivalent to the global warming potential of 27,000 dairy cows.
The waste water problem is twofold:
- There is a pipe to take waste impurities to sea and a perforated perimeter ditch which would surround the drainage from the site.
- The waste water storage sump is designed to withstand only a few hours of continuous rainfall, though nearby Crossmolina had 106 days of consecutive rainfall during the autumn of 2004. Overflow from the sump will flow into Carrowmore Lake, the drinking water supply of 10,000 Erris residents.
This untreated waste water would contain many toxic substances, including lead, nickel, magnesium, phosphorus, chromium, arsenic, mercury and the radioactive gas radon. Already aluminium levels in the lake (due to runoff from the construction) are far in excess of World Health Organisation limits.
The refinery would be constructed on blanket bog. Shell’s plan to stabilise this involves mixing in cement to form a hard surface. This process has only ever had small field trials and lab tests and creates a reaction which produces the very toxic hexavalent chromium.
The Environmental Protection Agency is in the process of producing a report into the environmental effects of the pipeline and its site in Bellanaboy. The report is expected to be finished by September 2007.
Pipeline Route
The upstream high pressure gas pipeline that connects the well to the inland refinery site runs through the area of Rossport, through villages and alongside peoples' homes. The pressure inside the pipeline would be up to four times greater than that of the highest pressure Bord Gáis pipelines and will be going through boggy land with a recent history of serious landslides. The gas pipeline would also have adjoining pipelines carrying hydraulic fluid, cleansing acids and a waste pipe, as well as electric cables.
Frequently described as a "high pressure" pipeline, the pipeline will have an operating pressure of 120 Bar and a maximum design pressure of 345 Bar. It is untreated, that is, odourless, without the added smell for detecting leaks. To compare, in Kinsale the gas is refined at sea and piped ashore at a much lower pressure and odorised. The highest pressure Bord Gáis pipelines, in the so-called Transmission network, bringing the gas cross-country or overseas to Scotland, run at 16 – 70 bar pressure.
The large pressure is necessary as the pipeline would be pumping the gas straight out of the field to the onshore refinery, whereas normally the refining takes place out at sea. This development is so unprecedented that the relevant Irish legislation and regulations assumes its non-existence, that is, current legislation applies to off-shore upstream pipelines and to on-land ones with similar levels of pressure to those used by Bord Gáis. The Irish government decreed the pipeline was not to be subject to planning permission as they considered it an offshore development, despite the fact that it runs inland for over 9km.
Broadhaven Bay
Broadhaven Bay is where Shell want to discharge toxic waste from the refining process. Due to the bay’s circular tidal pattern and semi-enclosed nature this toxic waste is far more likely to stay within the bay rather than be washed out to sea.
A UCC research team found that the bay was an important breeding and rearing area for whales and dolphins. They recorded over 220 sightings of seven whale and dolphin species including sightings of the relatively rare Risso's Dolphin, plus sightings of two seal species and marine mammals such as basking sharks and a sea turtle in Broadhaven Bay and north-west Mayo waters.
Broadhaven Bay is a Special Area of Conservation under European Union regulations. According to state heritage agency Dúchas “Broadhaven Bay supports an internationally important number of Brent Goose” as well as regionally important populations of other birds.
The pipeline would pass through the machair sand dunes/coastal grasslands at one end of Broadhaven Bay. These constitute a habitat unique to northwest Ireland and northwest Scotland.
Shell's reputation
Quite aside from the immediate safety and environmental concerns, many Erris residents have serious qualms about having Shell as a neighbour given their past record, especially in Nigeria (see controversies surrounding Royal Dutch Shell and Ken Saro-Wiwa).
Other issues
Many Irish people from outside Erris are concerned about other aspects of the proposed project. These include allowing private companies to acquire property without the permission of the owners and what many regard as the amazingly generous terms given to the oil companies by successive Fianna Fail governments. In its rankings of countries' facilitation of oil and gas companies, the World Bank rates Ireland in its highest, "very favourable" category, along with Pakistan and Argentina. By comparison, Nigeria is rated average. Mike Cunningham, a former director of Statoil, said: "No country in the world gives as favourable terms to the oil companies as Ireland." This is a result of legislation created by Ray Burke, a Dublin politician, who has been under investigation for several Tribunals of Inquiry into corruption allegations, dating from the time when he served as Minister of Communications and Energy.
This disgruntlement means Shell to Sea has been able to draw on support across Ireland, and there are branches in almost all the cities and major towns. People from the Niger Delta now resident in Ireland have been especially interested and supportive of the campaign, having had first-hand experience of living in an area that Shell has been active in, and many have visited the area to show support. A mural of Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was executed after leading a campaign to reduce Shell's influence in Ogoniland, has been painted on a gable in Rossport.
There is also a belief amongst many locals, that the volume of resources declared are a fraction of those that really exist there, to prevent renegotiation by the Irish state of the less than favourable (to Ireland) terms of contract.
Smear campaign
Attempts to smear the campaign have been diverse. The most durable has been the claim that the IRA or Sinn Féin control it, or somehow pull its strings. This story has been encouraged by the former Minister for Justice Michael McDowell (an implacable foe of Sinn Féin and staunch supporter of Shell's plans), various national newspapers and local businessmen. Before this, the caricatures were of tree-hugging hippies and "sub-intellectual" peasants. Stories of intimidation of project supporters have also been rife, but these have been rubbished by local Fine Gael TD Michael Ring. Ring was a staunch supporter of Shell to Sea until brought into line with the rest of the party by Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny.
Current Situation
On Tuesday September 26 2006, protesters prevented Shell's employees from entering the site of the intended refinery at Bellanaboy to begin work. Around 150 local people along with some supporters from around the country blocked the entrance to the refinery site and the Catholics among them (Mayo has the highest percentage of Catholics of any Irish county) began to recite the rosary. The workers turned back after discussions with Gardaí.
One week later on the 3 of October, scores more Gardaí were brought in from around the country, which increased their numbers to around 170. An attempt was made to block workers' access to the site by lying on the road but protesters were dragged off the road, thrown over fences and into ditches by the Gardaí. A number of people injured and one young woman was brought to hospital.
With the daily protests at Bellanaboy continuing, protesters occupied Shell Ireland HQ on Dublin's Leeson Street.
On the 12 of October three people were arrested at the morning protests.
On Friday October 20th there was a large scale protest at Bellanaboy, and one protester was arrested and released without charge.
During the following weeks, incidents of Garda brutality in policing the daily protests became more frequent . This was a result of Belmullet Superintendent Joe Gannon's publicly stated policy of avoiding arresting protestors so as not to create "martyrs", leaving those under his command no option but physical force, which made some violence inevitable.
A second large scale protest march was planned for Friday November 10th, the anniversary of the execution of Ken Saro Wiwa and eight other anti-Shell activists in Nigeria in 1995. When protesters worked their way around police lines, they were attacked with batons. Several were injured and some even hospitalised. Small groups of demonstrators who had been unable to get to the refinery attempted to blockade the nearby Lennon's quarry which supplies material for the construction of the site. The Gardaí were even less restrained here due to the lack of any significant media presence.
There was political controversy in Ireland about the use of such force on a peaceful demonstration. The Fianna Fáil Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said in a statement that the Irish government's position was clear in relation to the Corrib gas situation - that the negotiating is over and "that is it". In relation to the policing of the protests, he and Opposition leader Enda Kenny would only reiterate that "the law must be obeyed".
A further large scale protest at Bellanaboy scheduled for November 24th was cancelled by the protesters for fear of increased Garda belligerence that would have resulted in serious injury.
2007
February: there was a protest rally on the 24th, 2007, in Dublin attended by around 1,000 people. The march culminated at the GPO where protestors listened to speeches from members of the Rossport Five and politicians. This followed a smaller march at Bellinaboy the week before. After the march, about 100 protestors entered the site for an inspection, shutting down work for two hours.
April: in an escalation of the force of the Garda tactics, a photojournalist from the Press Association was thrown across a road into a ditch after he attempted to photograph Gardaí apprehending protesters who were blocking trucks. The following day, six protestors were arrested under the Public Order Act when they entered the site to monitor Shells' activities. In line with the official policy of avoiding publicity around the project, they were soon released without charge.
TD Jerry Cowley prepares to pursue the Gardaí through the courts over their alleged bugging of his phone and those of five prominent members of Shell to Sea.
May: having been anonymously donated shares in Royal Dutch Shell (which entitles one to speak at the Shell AGM), the campaign appointed three spokesmen to travel to the Hague and speak on their behalf.
June: on the 5th, five protestors chained themselves together outside the Bord na Móna facility in Srahmore near Bangor Erris where Shell have being dumping the peat removed from Bellinaboy. While rank-and-file Gardaí calmly awaited the arrival of the fire brigade to cut through the protestors' sophisticated "lock-on", Superintendent Gannon seemed beside himself with rage, referring to one female protestor as a "cunt" .
On the 11th, a stand-off ensued between locals and Gardaí at the pier in Glengad. Superintendent Gannon ordered his men to break the lock on a gate leading to the private property of local publican Paddy McGrath, in order to facilitate a Rural Planning Services contractor who wished to transport material across it for Shell. When the crowd refused to give way, Gannon instructed a digger driver to drive straight into the crowd. Twenty people were injured. This action also endangered the men under his command. Eventually the Gardaí left when McGrath brought a letter from his solicitor threatening to put the Gardaí under an injunction for trespass. Shell to Sea spokesman John Monaghan was arrested for allegedly assaulting a Garda. The day's events seemed to be the last straw for many Gardaí unhappy with Gannon's handling of the protests, and he was suspended from duty. Subsequent harassment of the elderly Paddy McGrath, including visits by large gangs of police to his house pressuring him to change his mind, led to him having a stroke on the 18th. McGrath is still in Castlebar General Hospital, where a surgeon confirmed the stroke was down to the stress of recent events.
July: on the 11th, three fishermen from Porturlin were sentenced to three months for assaulting a Garda at the protests in November 2006. The Garda Ombudsman is currently investigating scores of allegations of assault by Gardaí on women, old people and teenagers, but none of these investigations have been completed yet.
On the morning of the 13th, a man from Inver and a man from Enniscrone lock themselves together through a girder welded to a van parked across Bellinaboy Bridge, blocking truck access to the refinery site for six hours. The Porturlin Three are released on bail pending their appeal. That night, a parade of about a hundred cars celebrating their release stops at the site. The gates are forced open and the site occupied until it got dark.
On the 21st, the site is again invaded and occupied for an hour by fifty people. The following week, Superintendent Gannon returns after a six-week absence.
August: on the 27th, the site is again visited (against the wishes of security guards and police) by campaigners investigating rumours of substandard steel and concrete being used on the proposed refinery structures. Shell employees tell the protesters that the rumours are true.
References
- Irish Independent 21st October 2006
- Indymedia.ie report 26th September 2006
- "Mayo News" article 3rd October 2006
- RTE news report 11th October
- RTE news report 12th October 2006
- RTÉ NEWS OCTOBER 20TH 2006
- RTE News November 10th
See also
- Rossport Five
- Rossport Solidarity Camp
- Controversies surrounding Royal Dutch Shell
- Royal Dutch Shell safety concerns
- Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People