There are serious environmental, safety, economic and other concerns surrounding the proposed LNG terminal in Tarbert parish, which have not yet been thoroughly appraised even though An Bord Pleanála granted permission for the project on March 31st 2008. This is because the new fast-track planning process allowed for this application means that all environmental, safety and development issues are being examined in parallel and by different government bodies without the right of appeal in the planning process that would exist if the application was first submitted to Kerry County Council.

The primary concern is the lack of safety for nearby residents due to the fact that they live too close to the proposed site – a high-risk Seveso II site. Conservative scientific evidence provided below shows that it is unsafe to live within 3 miles of the site. This area covers the villages of Ballylongford, Tarbert and Killimer in County Clare. This will also prevent further use being made of the rest of the land bank due to the danger posed to people working nearby. More seriously the QRA undertaken by Shannon LNG itself admits categorically that “the development of the largest cloud produced by the …catastrophic failure of a full tank ….has a maximum downwind distance of ..12.4 Kilometers” (page 32 of QRA, bottom paragraph).. This will mean that the Kerry towns and districts of Beal, Asdee and Moyvane, the Limerick town of Glin and the Clare towns of Kilrush, Moyasta, Killimer, Knock and Kilmurry McMahon, as well as surrounding country side are in the possible fallout zone. This is from Shannon LNG’s own research.

The most serious environmental concern is that up to 100 million gallons of chlorinated seawater will be pumped into the estuary daily, causing serious environmental damage to this SAC area. The withdrawal and discharge of huge volumes of seawater would affect marine life by killing ichthyoplankton and other micro-organisms forming the base of the marine food chain unable to escape from the intake area. Furthermore, the discharge of cooled and chemically-treated seawater would also affect marine life and water quality.

The most serious economic concern is that the gas-industry’s own standard recommended exclusion zone of 2 miles around an LNG tanker will stop shipping – including the Tarbert-Killimer car ferry - in the estuary every time an LNG tanker is in the area (and Shanon LNG plan up to 125 tankers a year) and prevent marine use of the rest of the land bank.

Finally, whereas the developer emphasises that it is in the national strategic interest to have an LNG terminal in Ireland, we are of the opinion that only a strategic interest in LNG as another strategic alternative source of gas in Ireland has been accepted and that there has been no acceptance of the strategic need for an LNG terminal if no suitable site in Ireland is found. This distinction is very important because this need for LNG is already being met with the construction of the LNG terminals in the UK which can then provide LNG to Ireland via the existing gas pipelines from the UK. It must also be noted that the developer, in any case, does not guarantee supply of LNG via Tarbert.

On May 23rd 2008, Kilcolgan Residents Association member Raymond O’Mahony lodged a challenge to the decision to grant permission for the LNG terminal in the High Court in Dublin. The main grounds for appeal (reference 2008/598 JR) are that the safety concerns strenuously raised by Raymond and other members of the Kilcolgan Residents Association have been ignored at the planning decision stage contrary to Irish and European law.

This legal challenge will come as a bitter disappointment to Gordon Shearer, CEO of Hess LNG whose only other LNG proposal in Fall River, Massachusetts has been continually refused permission on safety grounds over the last 5 years.

The Kilcolgan Resident Association is of the opinion that it is now abundantly clear to all informed opinion that the oral hearing was a cosmetic exercise and that the decision to site a dangerous LNG terminal was made without the proper risk assessments having being completed – notably the emergency plan and the Marine Risk Assessment of an LNG spill on water. Hess LNG CEO Gordon Shearer admitted for the first time ever on a US TV interview on May 20th 2008 that an LNG ship one mile from any point of land is the nearest point “at which risk is down to acceptable levels”. However, any LNG ship will never be more than 1 mile from land once it starts travelling up the Shannon Estuary therefore putting lives at risk all along the North Kerry and South Clare coasts. World-Renowned LNG expert Dr. Jerry Havens told the oral hearing in January that anyone within 3 miles of an LNG accident would be in danger.

Another group is also mounting a challenge in the High Court. 'Friends of the Irish Environment' (http://friendsoftheirishenvironment.net) was formed specifically in 1997 by environmentalists concerned that European Environmental law was not being properly enforced in Ireland. A spokesman for the organization said that the decision infringed ‘at least' five European Directives - the Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive, the Seveso Directive on Major Accidents, the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive, the Habitats Directive and the Water Framework Directive.
FIE said that normally a planning decision given by a local authority can be appealed to An Bord Pleanala. Under this new legislation, however, An Bord Pleanala itself makes the planning decision in the first instance and there is no further appeal. The only course left is to seek a Judicial Review of the decision from the High Court.
Since the Aarhus Convention, European Directives have given citizens the right to a review of a decision that is ‘timely, equitable, and not prohibitive expensive' and it must be of all ‘substantive and procedural' legal matters.
In its application to the Court, FIE is specifically highlighting the Health and Safety Authority's failure to make available ‘technical advice on the effects of the proposed development on the risk or consequences of a major accident'.

‘The sole comment provided by the Health and Safety Authority was the statement that they did ‘not advise against' the proposal. This is no way meets the standard required by the Directive or our own Planning Regulations. It is entirely insufficient to allow us to determine if either the residents or the sensitive designated natural environment of the Shannon Estuary will be properly protected, the spokesperson concluded.