$hell keep these toxins at sea

mayo | environment | opinion/analysis Friday November 10, 2006 15:57 by Danny Conway Doona, BallyCroy, Westport, Co. Mayo.

To whom it concerns,
I must start off by saying that I approve of the Corrib gas coming ashore. I attended a meeting in Belmullet 30 months ago and I voted for this project to go ahead. There were over 800 people there and all but 5 voted in favour. I later worked on the project at Ballinaboy but no longer do so.

Until recently I believed that it was natural clean odourless gas being piped to Ballinaboy and an odour being added there. That's not so even through the main component to be piped to Ballinaboy in the proposed pipe will be gas, there will also be substances such as Mercury Lead and Arsenic. These substances are to be removed from the gas at Ballinaboy and piped out to the shore via a pipe to be layered parallel to the incoming one.

My concerns are health related and the weather we get around here doesn't help. On 12 July 1997 and 19 Sept 2003 we had the heaviest rainfall in living memory. If this rainfall comes again like that it would cause the terminal to flood. The result would be the contamination of Carramore Lake our water source. There already has been problems with peat silt escaping from the site at Ballinboy.

I firmly believe that this removal process should take place at sea. If its to expensive to process at the well head then it could be processed on an island or in shallow water. I really hope that Shell in their wisdom will change their minds and keep these toxins at sea far away from our water source.

Yours sincerely
Danny Conway