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 pipeline from the UK. It must also be noted that the developer, in any case, does not guarantee supply of LNG via Tarbert.

A submission of these concerns needs to be made to An Bord Pleanala,. The closing date is November 16th, 2007.