Wrong site chosen for gas refinery

IN his letter headlined ‘Priests challenged on Erris pipeline stance’ (November 6), Brendan Cafferty writes that the independent Advantica report said the original pipeline was safe.

In fact, the report recommended reducing maximum operating pipeline pressure from 345bar to 144bar.

The report also says that a rupture at 144bar could burn any house within a 166-metre radius and could kill anyone out in the open within a 203-metre radius. This is a risk that Shell and the Government are willing to accept, despite the frequency of landslides in the locality.

In September 2003, a massive landslide that swept away homes in Pollathomish uncovered the proposed route of the pipeline.

Had the project been completed by then, lives would almost certainly have been lost.

Regarding the proposed refinery site at Ballinaboy, in 2002 the senior planning officer with Bord Pleanála, made this statement: “From the perspective of government policy which seeks to foster regional development, this is the wrong site; from a strategic planning perspective, this is the wrong site; from the perspective of minimising environmental impact, this is the wrong site; and from the perspective of sustainable development, this is the wrong site.”

Paul Lynch

Middle Square

Macroom

Co Cork