Shell scheme poisoning Mayo drinking water

mayo | environment | other press

Friday April 28, 2006 10:50

by Shell to Sea

Activists set to distribute contaminated drinking water to civil servants

The appalling story of Shell's contamination of the drinking water in Mayo was confined to those who read indymedia, and some local papers in the west of Ireland. Shell to Sea came up with a plan to give out glasses of tap water from Erris to the civil servants at the Dept of Local Government (today 1-2PM at the Customs House, Dublin) and now the story is being covered by virtually every media outlet in the country*.

It just goes to show what a press release, a fold-out table and a white suit can do. Put "Shell to Sea" in the search on Google news to see the full effect.

*except RTÉ of course.

Shell are contaminating the drinking water in Mayo

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&filter=0&ie=UTF-8&q=%...+News

28/04/2006 - 8:25:18 AM

Corrib gas project ‘has polluted Mayo drinking water’

Opponents of the Corrib gas pipeline are claiming that drinking water from Carrowmore Lake in Co Mayo has been heavily contaminated as a result of the project.

The Shell to Sea campaign says the water has been polluted with aluminium as a result of the removal of peat from the site of the onshore gas terminal being built by Shell in Ballinaboy.

The group is due to present a sample of the water to the Environmental Protection Agency today in an effort to get the agency to investigate the concerns.

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news report and photos

Sat Apr 29, 2006 03:01

news report and photos here: http://www.indymedia.ie/article/75743

contaminated water stall at the Customs House, Dublin

Report from Ireland Online

Fri Apr 28, 2006 19:09

Shell refinery blamed for 'aluminium water pollution'
28/04/2006 - 15:58:31

The local water supply in North Mayo is being polluted by aluminium run-offs from a Shell gas refinery, it was claimed today.

Around 100,000 tonnes of peat had been removed to create a site for the Corrib gas field in Bellanaboy and activists claimed it has led to the exposure of aluminium deposits.

'Shell to Sea' spokesman John Monaghan said the aluminium was running into the local river and on to Carrowmore Lake, which is the main source of water for the Erris region.

“Shell are supposed to manage the surface water off the construction site but they haven’t done that. So since last October you have this very high aluminium content water running off the site into the Bellanaboy River and into Carrowmore Lake,” he said.

Due to long-running problems with phosphate pollution from local agriculture, most locals have not drunk the tap water from the local supply for many years.

Mr Monaghan said the aluminium discharges had made the problem even worse.

“Since Christmas, people had noticed something funny and had stopped drinking it. They suffered itching in the shower and saw a blue colour in the water in their baths.

“We don’t know if it’s directly associated with the aluminium but people are not drinking this water,” he said.

At a 'Shell to Sea' demonstration outside the Customs House in Dublin, protesters offered cups of muddy-coloured water taken from pools near the proposed refinery, Carrowmore Lake and the local water supply.

There were no takers for the yellow-coloured water.

Mayo County Council is monitoring the lake on a daily basis. It says treated drinking water is safe for human consumption and that there are no excess levels of aluminium in it.

Mr Monaghan said the council was failing to acknowledge the evidence from its own monitoring results such as on February 1 when the level of aluminium in the water was 251micrograms per litre, far in excess of the maximum level of 200.

“When the evidence of their own figures says the opposite, we cannot understand how they maintain their stance,” he said.

The construction of the gas refinery has been suspended since last year along with all of the Corrib gas field project.

Shell agreed to suspend the work and withdraw an injunction against five protesters from the local area, known as the Rossport Five, who have spent 94 days in jail.

A report from an independent mediator Peter Cassells is expected shortly but the Rossport Five are not taking part in the process.

http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=180990160&p...9x866

Other TV in the South

by Ciarán Ó Brolcháin

Fri Apr 28, 2006 18:22

Has TV3 or TG4 given the issue any coverage?

No there is not

by Shipsea

Fri Apr 28, 2006 13:59

The ignorance of shell supporters never ceases to amaze. It must have been reported a hundred times in a hundred different places by now that, no, there is no comparable pipeline anywhere in the country. This pipe would be uniquely dangerous. It would carry untreated, high pressure gas. Explosions on pipelines elsewhere in the world show that, even with far less volatile gas and lower pressures, the explosions have incinerators groups of people living much further away from them than some of the people in Mayo would be.

But this thread is about the ancialliary subject of contaminated drinking water, so lets not be diverted any longer.

there is already a gaspipeline

by this_is_cock

Fri Apr 28, 2006 13:27

there is already a gas pipeline running the breath of the country. What populist nonsense.

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Shell scheme poisoning Mayo drinking water

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