Call for Moratorium on Bog Sites Wind Farm Construction

host posted on October 10, 2008 16:42

FRIDAY 10th OCTOBER 2008

CALL FOR MORATORIUM ON BOG SITES WIND FARMS CONSTRUCTION

Groups cite EU Court Judgment in call for Best Practice Guidelines.

Irish environmental groups have called for a moratorium on wind farm constructions on bog sites until Best Practice Guidelines for construction on peatlands are in place.

A landslide in the Stacks Mountains in County Kerry in August has now been followed by a further landslide in County Leitrim. The Shannon Regional Fisheries Board has confirmed that both of these bogslides have led to extensive juvenile fish kills and destruction of the aquatic environment.

The two slides occurred while roads were under construction on raised peat lands. The roads are to facilitate the construction of wind farms.

The latest slide took place last week on the Owengar River, a tributary of Lough Allen, an area rich in biodiversity. Local environmental group CLEAN said that the landslide is far more damaging than has been reported to date. It has resulted in widespread ecological destruction and is potentially devastating for Lough Allen’s spawning beds of trout and Pollan.

The Fisheries Board has confirmed that ‘species impacted include wild Brown Trout, Lamprey, Stone loach, Stickleback, and Eels’.

In Kerry public water sourced from the Smearlagh river, supplying about 4,000 people, was discontinued and replaced with an alternative supply. The Feale river which supplies the towns of Listowel and Ballybunion was also affected.

The groups have written to the Minister for the Environment seeking a moratorium on further windfarm developments on peat bogs until the Minister can be satisfied that more devastating incidents will not occur again. They cite the Shannon Regional Fisheries Board’s recent call for developers and Local Authorities to urgently ‘review the road construction techniques currently in use and put preventative measures in place to minimize the possibility of further peatslides’.

Ireland was prosecuted by the European Courts earlier this year over its handling of road construction for wind farms on bogs. The courts found that Ireland consistently failed to conduct Environmental Assessments correctly, leading to consequences such as the Derrybrien bogslide in County Galway.

According to Friends of the Irish Environment, the judgment admonished Ireland because the Irish planning authorities have consistently argued that ‘the ancillary works of peat extraction and road construction were minor aspects of the project of wind farm construction’ and ‘that they did not in themselves require assessment’.

“It is particularly disturbing that in the recent two cases it appears to have been the mishandling of turf stack piled during road construction that led to the bogslides.”

In a parallel letter to the Minister for Energy the group drew attention to the case of the wholly owned subsidiary of the ESB, Hibernian Power, and its subsidiaries. A spokesperson said that ‘there are 19 proposals from these companies alone over which the Minister has the direct power to intervene, including the site of the current bogslide.’

An Taisce want a full and independent investigation into the cause of the landslides. “To comply with legal requirements to apply the precautionary principle, peat landslide hazard and risk assessments must be undertaken. No further developments can be permitted to proceed until this process is complete and Guidelines similar to those in other countries are in place” said a spokesperson.

ENDS

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