Author Archives: David Murray

About David Murray

David Murray is deeply involved in his community and his lead several projects around South Galway. He is an activist in progressing flood relief solutions in place for South Galway after decades of empty promises and also is involved in the development of the beautiful Gort River Walk for the South Galway/North Clare communities. He has recently been part of a successful campaign to bring a national Cycleway (Route5 is alive!) into the area and also part of a successful campaign to stop a mega-biogas plant being built in the environs of Gort and close to the Gort River. David is a Fellow in a hi-tech company called Arm.

Gort brings the fight to the Biogas developers

So who are the developers ?

Sustainable Bio-energy Limited is the name of the developer for the Biogas Plant in Gort and they are based in Donegal. They are a subsidiary of Connective Energy Holdings Limited, who also own the Glenmore Generation plant in Ballybofey, Co.Donegal. We explored the backstory of the Glenmore facility in an earlier post (the Brimstone cowboys) and it makes for some concerning reading.

The Environmental (EIAR) reports on the Gort Biogas and Glenmore Generation plants are typically prepared by Halston, a project management company offering planning and environmental impact assessment services.

Throughout our six-year campaign, the Gort Biogas Concerns Group has reached out to the Sustainable Bio-energy to enter into dialog, but to no avail, they prefer to remain faceless and in the shadows.

Explosive Negligence

In October 2023, lightning struck a Biogas plant in Oxfordshire, UK, resulting in a huge explosion and resulting fire at the site.

Figure 1. Explosion of Biogas storage tanks due to a lightning strike at a Biogas plant in Oxfordshire, UK. October 2023.

The strike caused three of the four biogas storage tanks to explode. This required a massive response from the emergency services including, six fire engines, four ambulances and 40 firefighters to bring the blaze under control. Raw biogas, held in storage silos, wasn’t the only explosive material on site, as many Biogas plants also store processed Biogas (Biomethane) in compressed and highly explosive cylinders. Luckily no one was injured at this plant due to its remote location.

If this is the type of explosion that three tanks can produce, then what would be the potential for a plant with several times the volume? This is the size of the proposed Gort Biogas plant. With the closest home just 100m away, and the nearest housing estate just 200m away a blast at a plant of this magnitude would be catastrophic. How many fire engines and firefighters would be needed to bring something like this under control? Does Gort, or even County Galway or Clare have the emergency capacity for such a response?

Emergency plans for explosive sites are governed by Irish/European law under what is called COMAH (Control of Major Accident Hazards). Through the Environmental Impact Assessment Report (EIAR), such potential hazards are identified and addressed as a planning requirement. COMAH regulations require the company and consultants to undertake a full analysis to understand the health and safety concerns of the plant, adopt monitoring programs during operations and formulate emergency response plans including liaison with fire authorities and the Health and Safety Authority (HSA).

Biogas wasn’t considered explosive by planning consultant

As part of our analysis we looked into how Halston, the company who carried out the EIAR for the Gort plant, approached the COMAH regulation. The EIAR report concluded that they, in fact, did not consider the raw Biogas in the 12 tanks (digesters/storage) as an explosive substance and the proposed Biogas plant was therefore below the thresholds required under COMAH. Essentially, concluding that the facility was exempt from these regulations.

When you consider what happened in Oxfordshire , how could any diligent planning consultant conclude that Biogas is not a hazardous/ explosive substance and therefore to be exempt from a regulation designed specifically to mitigate against such incidents?

ABP excuses planning consultant

This was of course a huge concern for our community, and we brought this to the attention of An Bord Pleanála as part of our submission report.

The response from the ABP inspector was unbelievable. He excused the total omission of the Biogas as a hazardous substance by the developer. Then, correctly considering the Biogas as hazardous substance, the inspector did his own calculations and concluded, in agreement with the Halston EIAR report, that COMAH regulations didn’t apply to the Gort plant.

The Gort Biogas Concerns Group conducted its own analysis of and found that the ABP inspectors’ assumptions and calculations were not consistent with the regulations and that the Gort plant was well within the threshold. Not satisfied, we sought clarification from expert industry consultants in Ireland in preparation for our Judicial Review. Unfortunately, those with expertise in COMAH in Ireland were unwilling to engage with us, so we had to seek expertise in the UK. We engaged the services of experts who reviewed the plans and concluded that the site was indeed well within the COMAH threshold. In fact, due to its size, the development was almost twice the threshold where COMAH regulations are a legal requirement.

To fully inform our argument, we asked the consultant to review the APB inspector’s COMAH calculations. The consultant highlighted six serious errors made by the APB inspector. This became part of our legal case which APB had recently conceded.

Gort Bites Back

This incorrect COMAH assessment remains a key point in our campaign. The point that ABP conceded the case does not change the fact that without the proper assessment, this development would have proceeded unchecked. Placing a facility with potentially catastrophic potential in close proximity to residential areas, and with no incident response plan in place.

This warranted further action.

Planned developments in explosive breach

As planned Gort Biogas development by Sustainable Bio-energy Limited is in breach of the COMAH regulation in regards to the handling and storage of explosive gases, the Gort Biogas Concerns Group contacted the HSA in March with this information. This was an important step, as planning at the site remains active until ABP amends the order.

We contacted another group, faced with a similar plight as Gort, in Swinford, Co. Mayo, and let them know our findings. Through their own research, they too have demonstrated that their planning application is also in breach of the COMAH regulation. Another potential time bomb.

The fact that the Gort planning application passed through an environmental planning consultant and the ABP inspector, and both concluded, incorrectly, that the COMAH regulation did not apply, raises some serious questions about the overall planning process in regards to Anaerobic digestors – Ciaran O’ Donnell, Gort Biogas Concerns Group

Operational development in explosive breach

With two planned Biogas developments in breach of COMAH, and the potential for many more under the Governments Biomethane Strategy looming, we decided to look at an operational Biogas plant: Glenmore Generation Limited in Donegal, a subsidiary of Connective Energy Holdings Limited, and a sister company of Sustainable Bio-energy Limited, of the Gort Biogas development.

Here we conducted the same calculations of the COMAH requirements as we did in Gort but at the sister plant; Glenmore Generation Limited in Donegal, and found that they also appear to be in breach of these very same regulations.

Our research shows that Halston was again in charge of preparing the EIAR for Glenmore Generation Limited (Donegal), as it was for Sustainable Bio-energy Limited (Gort).

We therefore made contact with the HSA in March and reported the Glenmore Generation Limited Biogas plant as potentially being in breach of the COMAH regulations.

Operational development in planning breach

While researching the Glenmore Generation Limited Biogas plant, we reviewed the Donegal County Councils planning conditions for this facility. A key condition of planning permission was that no more than 20 tonnes of biogas (including biogas in the digesters and compressed biomethane) was to be stored onsite.

The developer indicated that they would comply as they only planned to store the compressed biomethane in 2 storage tank modules.

Last year, Glenmore Generation released a promotional Youtube video called ‘Behind the Scenes on our Biogas Operation’. From this clip, it is clearly evident that there are not two but six storage modules on site (Figure 2), enabling three times the capacity of their current planning restrictions.

Figure 2. Six compressed gas storage tanks at the Glenmore Generation limited. (Source: Youtube promotional video: ‘Behind the Scenes on our Biogas Operation’).

The Gort Biogas Concerns Group contacted Donegal County Council in March and submitted an enforcement complaint as this storage is contrary to planning applications at the Glenmore plant.

If people are to embrace this technology, then they need to trust the process. People need the reassurance that the decision making and planning process has been conducted thoroughly following environmental law and planning regulations – Ciaran O’ Donnell

Further investigations

From our investigation, we have identified serious issues within both planned and operational Biogas plants. This begs the question; how many of the current operational Biogas plants on the Island of Ireland are in breach of this and other regulations? With the Governments drive for a further 200 plants, what else will emerge?

This investigation highlights the cavalier culture of developers, consultants and operators to enable developments, come what may, in pursuit of profit. Glenmore Generation Biogas is not adhering to Irish and European COMAH regulations for health and safety, and is potentially storing three times more compressed gas than it was regulated to do so. This is not about planning though; this is about the health and safety of the people working on the site and the people in the surrounding community.

Donegal has already suffered a horrific gas explosion in Creeslough in October 2022, so Donegal County Council and the HSA will likely be hyper-vigilant to this blatant disregard of health and safety regulation.

It is clear that, for people to have confidence in this technology, then they need to trust it. For new planned Biogas plants, the emphasis is on An Bord Pleanála and local planning authorities and the HSA to ensure safety regulations are adhered to, and planning law followed.

Is it time for a full health and safety review of all current operational Biogas plants in Ireland ? Would it be prudent to establish government regulation and not guidelines for all new and existing anaerobic digestors as part of the Biomethane strategy ? We certainly think so.

We look forward to a timely response from Donegal County Council and the HSA in regards to our submissions.

The Gort Biogas Concerns Group has been consistent throughout; the use of anaerobic digestion can help to reduce our reliance on fossil gas, when sized and scaled appropriately to the needs of the local community. Putting the needs of communities ahead of industrialisation and profits, and ensuring the safety of people and the environment is paramount.

David Murray, Gort Biogas Concerns Group

National Biomethane Strategy slammed by An Taisce

The National Biomethane strategy

The National Biomethane Strategy launched on 25 May 2024 to produce up to 5.7 TWh of biomethane by 2030, reducing reliance on fossil gas and contributing to Ireland’s Climate Action Plan by adding about 200 anaerobic digester plants. The strategy specially calls out the use of waste such as ‘grass’ to be used for alternative land use options and income diversification for farmers. The government has sought €40 million to provide funds for a Biomethane Capital Grant Scheme for early adopters. The scheme will be administered by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine in partnership with SEAI. Minister Eamon Ryan aims to expand grant support from 2026.

Credibility assessment

The strategy does not fully consider the environmental impacts of biomethane production, including methane leakage and ammonia pollution.
Potential adverse effects on climate and water quality from fertilizer use for silage growth are not addressed.

An Taisce submitted a critical review of the Irish Government’s National Biomethane Strategy, highlighting its lack of scientific and economic credibility and is criticized for not adequately analyzing the potential negative environmental and climate impacts. The following are the key points.

Lack of Comprehensive Analysis:

Regulatory Capture and Biased Consultations:

The preparation process favored industry stakeholders, ignoring environmental NGOs and academic research.
This approach raises concerns about regulatory capture and misdirection of policy supports.

Methane Leakage:

Methane losses from AD plants are a significant issue, potentially making biomethane worse for the climate than fossil gas.
Scientific assessments and field measurements indicate unsustainable methane leakage rates, which are not sufficiently addressed in the strategy.

Environmental Risks of AD Feedstock:

The high use of silage and slurry mix for AD feedstock could increase global warming and ammonia emissions, worsening pollution.
Ireland’s pasture-grazed system may not be suitable for AD biomethane, leading to pollution swapping and negating climate benefits.

Nitrogen Pollution:

The strategy could lead to increased nitrogen use, contrary to policy goals of reducing nitrogen inputs.
Strict regulation on national nitrogen use is necessary to avoid environmental degradation.

High Costs and Inefficiency:

Biomethane is an expensive renewable energy source compared to alternatives like wind, solar, and heat pumps.
The strategy fails to clarify financial benefits to the public, with potential gains skewed towards powerful industry players.

Unintended Consequences:

Large-scale AD biomethane rollout could lead to unintended negative outcomes, such as promoting the growth of mega-dairy farms.

Assessment from Gort Biogas Concern Group.

If the experience that we suffered in Gort is anything to go by, many communities across the nation are heading for trouble.

The plans for a mega Biogas plant in Gort were underscored by inexperienced developers and extremely poor environmental analysis. Novice mistakes in calculations, huge holes in the environment analysis highlighted by our group and supported by Galway County Council. For instance: the EIAR for the Gort Biogas proposal submitted by Halston Engineering …

… had mistakes on the gas volumes of the buildings leading to lower exhaust rates giving the impression of lower air pollution.
… neglected to consider Biogas as a flammable/ explosive – basically all the biogas in the 12 domes. See what happened here when lightening stroke a small digester plant in Oxfordshire.
.. didn’t do detailed geological surveys even though preliminary geological surveys showed karst fissures below the planned domes.
.. didn’t do detailed pollution analysis based on the relative height of the stacks relative to residences on the Galway road
.. didn’t provide any details on digestate land spreading and impact of increasing nitrate levels.
… made mistakes on their traffic analysis and don’t take into account peak biogas production times.
… lacked proof of the sustainability of the development when considering prices for silage and transport costs.
… didn’t properly regard the proximity of the Gort River to the site
… didn’t address water needs properly.
…. And many many more ….

We were of course very concerned about the lack of professionalism and detail delivered especially when our community and environment were at stake. It was a sigh of relief that Galway County Council came to the same conclusions and refused planning permission. The real surprising concern was when An Bord Pleanala based on what we felt was a developer-biased report and despite the real issues outlined by ourselves and the Council overturned the Council’s refusal and gave permission for the plant. This of course led to the community having to bring the case to the high court and eventually common sense prevailed and An Bord Pleanala conceded the case and effectively is currently is overturning their refusal.

An Bord Pleanala was willing to really push the Biogas agenda, despite valid and key concerns – why?? This was a railroading of the Biogas agenda long before this ‘strategy’ which will no now be used as a leverage to justify Biogas development for over 200 plants.

Conclusion:

An Taisce are correct, in that this was really a developer/industry driven strategy. This is similar dynamic to what we have already experienced in Gort where we felt the proposal was shoehorned for national strategies regardless of actual and real impacts to the community and environment.

An Taisce is urging a significant revision of the Draft National Biomethane Strategy to incorporate input from environmental NGOs and peer-reviewed research, ensuring that known issues with biomethane production are effectively addressed to avoid exacerbating climate and mitigate environmental impacts. Gort Biogas Concerns Group fully support this.

The policy missed a chance to really enable smaller-scale digesters that would fit within current farming densities and infrastructure rather than enabling these mega-biogas facilities in areas that are not suitable.

In a report in the Report in the Farmers journal also criticised the strategy stating it has missed an opportunity .

We had an opportunity to develop a new industry from the ground up-one that could be farmer-owned and support a fair and just transition. Instead the states lacklustre effort has made it nearly impossible for farmers to own this industry.
Farmers Journal, Saturday 1st June.

What happened in Gort will no doubt be repeated, especially as our Government is waving money around to attract developers to fast-track Anaerobic digester developments – and with their subsequent ‘greenwashing’ they will in no doubt continue to discard/dilute real environmental impacts.

If our highest planning authority, An Bord Pleanala, overturned a local council planning decision to grant a mega-biogas plant close to a thriving rural town, in an extremely environmentally-sensitive area based on a dismal EIAR, then nowhere in the country is safe from these mega plants.

The national biomethane strategy is a good example of greenwashing – painting the picture of a benign ‘green’ tech without taking consideration of serious community and environmental impacts

ABP concedes the Gort Biogas case – a win for Gort and South Galway

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A case brought to the High court by the Gort Biogas Concern Group CLG and the Burren Lowlands CLG against the decision of An Board Pleanála to grant permission to build an industrial scale Biogas Facility in the town of Gort has reached conclusion, with An Board Pleanála conceding.

The case is the culmination of five-year campaign fought by the people of South Galway against this development, and has been received with great joy by people from the town. Gort Biogas Concern Group member Ciaran O’Donnell said “this is a win for common sense, industrial developments of this scale belong in industrial settings. Galway County Council got it right, and refused planning, it took ABP a bit longer to reach the same thinking, and we had to fight it all the way”.

Gort Biogas Concern group, composed entirely of volunteer effort, raised the funds from donations from the community to mount the legal challenge. The group has been clear from the onset that there is a place for Anaerobic technology, if scaled to the local area and with local needs considered. Industrial developments of this scale would financially benefit a few individuals but impact everyone living in or visiting the town. The scale of the proposed plant matched the size of our neighboring town of Kinvara and would be located just 800m from Gort’s town square. The potential impact on the environment was too great given the importance of local area and karst landscape, feeding into the pristine Coole-Garryland SAC complex. The long term viability of the town was also at stake, being unable to realise the full potential of local heritage and to capitalise on its position in the Burren Lowlands. The people of Gort support a vision of long term stability and viability, driven by input and engagement.

O’Donnell continued “the unrelenting and endless support of the people of south Galway made this happen and we will remain vigilant for this and other such similar developments that threaten the local environment and the viability of the town to thrive and prosper into the future”.

The Planned Biogas Plant in Gort – An explainer

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After almost a 2 year wait,on the 22nd of December, An Bord Pleanala decided to overturn Galway County Council’s decision to refuse planning permission for a large-scale Biogas plant on the immediate outskirts of Gort Co. Galway. This decision will have brutal impacts on Gort town and the local environment as the Biogas plant is set to go ahead.

This industrial biogas plant (think of it as a massive stomach) , will be developed on a 25 acre site. The town of Kinvara could fit inside it. It will have the following process

Take delivery of 90,000 tonnes/year of ‘feedstock’ such as slurry, food compost, fish waste and silage
Digest this in 8 massive digester tanks and produce Methane, Carbon Dioxide and other chemicals such as Hydrogen Sulphide, Nitrous Oxide , Ammonia etc
This process will produce offensive odours within the process
Store and export 150,000 tonnes/annum of the digested slurry or digestate
Spread this on land in vicinity of the plant – This equates to spreading almost 2 Olympic- sized swimming pools of smelly slurry-digestate on land in South Galway/North Clare every week.

Anerobic digesters are a key part of our Climate Action Plan but there are some key issues that we have in this location.

The location is completely wrong for an industrial sized biogas plant, in terms of it’s access to feedstock, size and proximity to local population, local amentities and its proximity to Coole Park nature reserve and SACS, These should be located to feedstock sources.
There are key health concerns for locating this facility so close to a town (100m to nearest residence, 50m from Gort River Walk, 400m to nearest housing estate and 900m from Gort Town Centre/Square). Biogas plants produce Nitrous Oxide, Ammonia, Sulpher Dioxide many of which are harmful to human health. Biogas plants can explode.
There are traffic, and health and safety concerns as this facility will bring 6,000-7000 HGVs into Gort per year. This may cause havoc on the towns roads, increase risk of traffic accidents and bring more fumes and noise into the town
This will make town and environs smelly – from escaped odours of the plant to the spreading of 2 olympic-sized swimming pools of smelly digestate per week. This will have the most pervasive and impactful effect on the town e.g.
The town and and local economy will be severely impacted – tourism will plummet – accommodation, restaurants, services. House values will plummet. People will not want to live or locate their business in town. The culture of the town will be forever changed. Welcome to ‘smelly Gort’ and
The local environment will be at risk. An explosion or spill into the Gort River (10m from plant) will reach Kitartan and Coole Park and would have catastrophic impacts. Digestate on land will increase levels of pollution in South Galway
The plant could suck Gort Town dry of water. Our fragile water system couldn’t take heavy water demands from this type of plant. The town supply is at near critical level and the infrastructure simply isn’t there to meet the additional demand of such a facility.
There are national rural concerns here also because these plants will try and locate themselves close to infrastructure and they won’t take local towns concerns into consideration.

The community around South Galway is devastated that after all the work done and Galway County Council’s refusal that this is being allowed to go ahead and deal a horrendous blow to the future of Gort and South Galway. The general consensus of the South Galway community is that if this development goes ahead it will absolutely ruin the town and surrounding environs and have impacts on peoples lifestyles, health and businesses around South Galway (especially the tourism industry)

Please help us protect it now and into the future. Please support or fundraiser to mount our legal challenge to overthrow An Bord Pleanala’s decision to grant planning permission.

Proposed Biogas plant could bleed Gort dry

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Last week An Bord Pleánala wrote to the applicants for the proposed Biogas plant in Gort seeking clarifications regarding its water supply requirements. The developers state that they will need 120,000 m³ (120 million litres) of water annually to run the plant and there are some major concerns over this.

Why is this important?

The Biogas proposal would have a significant impact on the water supply of Gort Town which already has a constrained capacity. An additional extraction of 120 million litres per year would break an already over-stretched infrastructure. In order to meet these Biogas demands, significant restrictions could be imposed on the Gort Town Water Supply on how we could use water domestically, in businesses as well as potentially constraining future planning potential.

120,000 m³ of water is 120 million litres, which is Croke Park flooded to a depth of 10 metres. This relates to an average of 328 m³/day.

Why does a Biogas plant consume so much water?

In order to get an optimum aerobic digestion process, feedstock (silage, slurry, food waste) needs to be the consistency of a wet-sludge. The applicants state that the proposed Biogas plant will need sludge with dry-mater content (DMC) of between 5% and 8%.

The proposal indicates that it will process 90,000 tonnes of feedstock, including 54,000 tonnes of silage, which has a very high dry-matter content (28%), and would need to be diluted 3-fold to achieve the ideal ratio. This means evert cubic metre of silage (0.77 tonnes) would need about 3000 litres of water to dilute it correctly. So even with silage alone this would be well over 120 million litres water/year, and not considering dilution of the remaining 36,000 tonnes of feedstock. Their estimation is therefore too low for the proposed development.

An important point to note is that the water consumption will not be flat and there will be peaks, mainly from when silage cutting happens from end of May to October. In these months the majority of this water requirement will be consumed.

What are the Biogas developers proposing?

That’s the thing – the developers have indicated that the need 120 million litres of water per year but have not clarified where they are getting if from or how much they need. They have indicated that they can store run-off water from the site in attenuation ponds but this will only cover.a fraction of the requirements at peak

This is a significant omission that we highlighted during our observations on the application and we are happy that An Bord Pleánala have asked for clarification.

What clarifications are the ABP looking for ?

An Bord Pleanala have rightly questioned the developers to confirm if the capacity of the existing water network is capable of providing their needs. They requested the following in a letter on 11th May 2022:

“Please provide a breakdown of the water supply source to be utilized at the proposed development, with the associated calculations which confirm the availability of water capacity t othee the state requirements of 120,000 cubic metres of liqour per annum.“

What is the capacity of the Gort Water Supply??

According to the EPA , 2,638 people are serviced by the Gort Public Water Supply (PWS). The water is sourced mainly from Gort River, supplemented with water from two boreholes.

According to Irish water, the Gort Water supply is constrained and will need improvements to meet growing demand in the next 10 years. The daily demand in 2019 for the Gort Water Supply was 1018 m³/day (~1 million litres) and the expected growth in demand over the next decade is an additional 26,000 litres/day. The water supply is so limited currently that this tiny increase, will require improvements to the network. If an increase of 26,000 litres/day will require a upgrade, what on earth will happen when the proposed Gort Biogas plant needs an extra 328,000 litres/day on top of this. This is a daily average over the year so in peak silage season the requirement could easily double to 650,000 litres/day.

What we can also see from the Irish Water Capacity Register is that currently, in dry summers the Gort Water supply is barely able to keep up with demand. The total capacity of the current water supply is 1,440,000 litres/day and the 2019 demand in summer was 1,407,000 litres/day, allowing only a tiny margin of headroom (33,000 litres/ day) .

The town’s water supply is currently at capacity and burdening the supply further will only result in one thing- water restrictions. So then granting access a massive water consuming plant to use this already highly constrained water network would be simply negligent.

What kinds of impact could this have?

The proposed Gort biogas plant would cause a breakdown of the water supply in normal years and in dry years would wreak havoc. Gort would simply run out of water at peak times.

We are currently 3 months in to a ‘boil notice’ period and are fully aware of the inconvenience and hardship this has brought to some. If the proposed Biogas plant goes ahead, we could easily see 3 months of water restrictions during peak times limiting how and when we use our home supply.

We also need to carefully consider and be fully aware of how this could impact future developments within the town. If the Biogas plant went ahead then it would be impossible to develop more housing because the water supply would not have the capacity.

There is also the environmental question,- what happens if we take an additional 650,000 litres /day from the Gort River? Will it stop flowing completely (like it almost did in 2018) ?

It’s simply not good enough that the proposed Gort Biogas plant could go ahead without due consideration to these matters. The developers omitted this consideration in their EIAR, we highlighted this on our observations and now An Bord Pleanala is seeking clarification.

The water capacity constraints are very real and so it’s is very unlikely that the Biogas developers will get any confirmation from Irish Water with demands of an additional 120 million litres of water per year day from a water supply that’s on the edge of collapse. We look forward to how the developers intend to address their response to the Bord and we will be ready to challenge it.

This is one of many reasons that this the Gort Biogas Plant can not go ahead. No ifs, no buts. This is a serious consideration, and one of many as equally serious, that could affect the people of this community and the future of the town.

Support is essential !

Please continue to support our fight against this development and share this information far and wide. If An Bord Pleanala allow this development to go ahead then we will need that support even more.

David Murray.

Biogas plant and Cycleways

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When the Biogas developers came to town they talked the talk. There was jobs to be had, economic benefits, environmental benefits etc. It sounded like the ‘best-thing’ to happen to Gort since sliced-pan. It sounded really plausible, something, perhaps, beneficial to the area as there wasn’t much else going on for Gort.

It’s only when we scraped the surface and dug a little deeper did we realise the disaster on our doorstep. The proposed Gort biogas plant ended up as the proverbial bowling ball that would obliterate the economic future of South Galway. Here are some key points:

The site was within 10m of Gort River and developer admitted in the EIAR that though it was unlikely there would be accidents – an accident would be detrimental to our special areas like Kiltartan, Coole Lake, Garyland and even Galway Bay.
An air exhast design flaw that was subject to EPA controversy, in their sister plant in Ballybofey, was also included in the Gort biogas proposal, meaning that the environmental analysis was flawed
Their water requirements would have left Gort with a severe water shortage but they deemed that it would have not impact.
The traffic analysis was flawed and didn’t account for the disposal of 150,000 tonnes of (very smelly) digestate waste that was to be spread on farms in the immediate vicinity.
They tried to downgrade the amenity and recreational aspects of the area indicating that area had little or no recreational value.

There would be … 20 people (over 3 shifts) created.

The sister company’s track record speaks for itself as it was subject to EPA blacklisting and many EPA Non-conformance incidents in the Sister plant. Most of the complaints filed were due to the smell of the plant. The smell covered a huge area and had been highlighted by residents in the Inishowen peninsula. Here is a excerpt from a public meeting regaring the ongoing smell across the south inishowen peninsula.

“Residents and business owners filled Burt Hall to full capacity on Thursday night to express their views over the ongoing smell in South Inishowen. “

Glenmore Estate refute ‘loophole’ claims as action group is established in South Inishowen

3 years ago, this was potentially the best thing to happen to South Galway! But … not any more!

Gort River Walk

As the developers tried to downgrade the recreational value of the area, the community was busy progressing the Gort River Walk. This has been earmarked in Gort area plan as part of an amenity network along the Gort River. This hidden gem was really just waiting to be discovered and 3 years after its initial mooting, it is now a key amenity and resource for Gort, South Galway and North Clare.

Cycleway coming to town!

In the last few weeks Gort and South Galway has been selected as the emerging preferred route for the Athlone- Galway cycleway. A potential (and favoured) route of the Cycleway is to follow the Gort River Walk out Lavally, come over the planned bridge, into Kinincha and then take a right out the Kinincha Road toward Ballinamantan and Coole.

If the Biogas was to go ahead, this potential cycleway route would have run at least 300m along the boundary of the smelliest plant in the province, if not in the country.

If the Biogas plant had already been approved, the Athlone-Galway Cycleway would not be coming through South Galway. Yes – 20 jobs would have been created and yes the area would suffered substantially – but shouldn’t be be thankful for 20 jobs???

20 jobs is a distinct number and yes it’s printed in black and white and but it’s 3 shifts of 8 people. That’s a maximum of 8 people for perhaps for lunchs in Sullivan, The Field, The Gallery Cafe, and Roosters Cafe if they decided to go to lunch.

A cycleway has the potential to bring in 200+ people through the area in a single day, not all would be stopping in Gort and 1/2 might be local.

Both Waterford and the new Limerick Cycleway are reporting 250,000 people annually, about 1/2 are local’s using the route and 1/2 are walkers so this should inject a new tourism potential into South Galway as it currently doesn’t have enough accomodation, rooms, restaraunts, pubs, cafes, services to meet the needs of the cycleway.

That’s the scale of the difference we are talking about – A maximum of 8 biogas plant workers having lunch v’s 100+ people passing through and potentially staying in the area in a single day.

The scary thing is, that on the first application for the Biogas plant .. they almost made it…. It ticked all the boxes – green , environment, economic. The next scariest thing is that An Board Pleanala could still give permission to for the Biogas plant and if its granted then its a disaster for everybody (except the developers)

“They have heard how much of a health impact this has on the community and they need to recognise the massive impact they are having on people.”
Donegal Daily, reporting on impacts of Glenmore Biogas plant on the Ballybofey community.

The Way forward

We are now in 3rd consultation phase of the Galway to Athlone Cycleway and the project team is getting feedback on the best route to pick. This picture shows the emerging cycleway corridor (in blue) and also where the proposed biogas plant is going (in red).

The emerging cycleway route corridor (in blue) and the proposed biogas plant (in red)

The most scenic route for the cycleway is probably along the Pound road, over the bridge to Kinincha and out Ballynamantan.

Gort has recently got €800,000 grant for regeneration and enhancement of the town centre – this is the kind of investment we need in the area not smoke stacks and slurry tankers.

We need to ensure that the Biogas plant is never built here.

David Murray.

South Galway – The Environmental powder keg

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Update : Since the publication of this article An Bord Pleanala has refused the ESB Windfarm at Derrybrien substitute consent essentially making it an unauthorized development. ESB have agreed to decommission the windfarm. Between EU Fines and decommission costs will results in loss of 10s of millions of Euro to the Irish taxpayer.

With the recent flurry of climate change commitments, we run the real risk of enabling environmental malpractice and we should learn from lessons of the past from South Galway.

For a relatively small region, South Galway has become a national symbol of environmental malpractice based on ‘green’ developments. It is not just the controversial Derrybrien Windfarm that continues to garner the news but even more recently, a similarly green project (Gort Biogas Plant) has now been proposed. Both projects, through 20 years apart are giving An Bord Pleanála a bit of a nightmare. While long overdue, within the next month or so, An Bord Pleanála will have to make decisions on both of these projects and Europe is watching very closely. While these 2 development projects tick the ‘good for the environment/climate ‘ boxes, we are still paying harshly for the lessons of Derrybrien Windfarm development malpractice. Have An Bord Pleanála and our Government actually learned the lesson?

An Bord Pleanála and the Derrybrien Windfarm

Over 20 years ago An Bord Pleanála backed the application for the development of a Windfarm in Derrybrien Co. Galway and in some aspects went against Local Authority Decisions. Within 3 years, the plan became the focus of an unauthorized development and an environmental disaster; a landslide/mudslide that entered the rivers of South Galway and killed between 50,000 fish and deposited large amounts of sediment into the catchment. The local Derrybrien community had to engage with the European Commission as the ESB and Irish Government didn’t appear interested or supportive in resolving the situation.

In July 2008, the European Court of Justice ruled that Ireland breached the EIA Directive environmental directive as no assessment was carried out ahead of construction of the large-scale 70 turbine project. After an 11-year hiatus of non-action by ESB and the Irish Government, on 12th Nov 2019, the European Court then issued a €5 million fine and a €15,000 daily fine until a retrospective environmental impact assessment (rEIAR) and associated mitigations were complete. The ESB/local authorities finally got around to applying for a ‘substitute consent’ for the windfarm development in August 2020, supported by a rEIAR. This application and its rEIAR is currently with An Bord Pleanála for review and they need to make a decision imminently.

In the past few weeks, the EU fines have now accumulated to over €15 million and the EU Environment commission did its own analysis of rEIAR. Its advice was pretty stark “Based on the technical review of the rEIAR against the requirements of the EIA Directive, it is recommended that further information is provided before the consenting authority can make an informed decision on this application. “ (See more details here).

This was a warning shot to An Bord Pleanála (ABP). The EU Environment commission brought about the court action and are clearly signalling to the An Bord Pleanála that all is not well with the ESB approach. If An Bord Pleanála rejects the EU report recommendations, then they will be kicking a very expensive can down the road as the daily fine of €15,000 will keep accumulating. The ABP/ESB will likely be told to go back to the drawing board and the process will need to be kickstarted again – wasting millions of tax-payer money.

An Bord Pleanála and the Proposed Gort Biogas Plant

As if the windfarm wasn’t enough of a controversy, an application of a mega biogas plant in Gort, South Galway is now also up for review with An Bord Pleanála . The project itself is for a plant capable for processing 90,000 tonnes of feedstock and will produce 120,000 tonnes of waste – all located within a few hundred meters of Gort town center. This application has the same familiar markers as seen by the Derrybrien Windfarm project.

It’s a green project and therefore it must must be good for us
Its environmental impact assessments are full of holes
There is no engagement with the local community to address local concerns

The application got a stark and strong push-back from the local community with hundreds of objections. In January 2020, Galway County Council rejected the planning application for a wide range of reasons – mainly that it wasn’t convinced that traffic impacts and environmental impacts were identified and mitigated correctly. The following gives a very brief summary of the key reasons:

The proposed Biogas Plant is located within a 100m of residential areas and close to Gort Town Center
It’s 10m from Gort River which feeds a National Park (Coole Park) and Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) 4km away – another environmental disaster in the making…
It would cause traffic chaos around the town
Many serious errors in the EIAR that render the Environmental Impact Analysis void. (See more details)

An Bord Pleanála on their website state that they are independent, impartial with professionalism and integrity. They have the facts so you would likely conclude that they will not overturn Galway County Councils decision and grant permission within the next few weeks. However, could this decision be influenced by the current climate-change background?

Climate Change

The pressure is on and it all looks ‘Green’. Its on individuals and it’s on governments. Reduce our carbon footprints, invest in climate change strategies.

How the climate lobby crushed debate - spiked

A recent Farmer’s Journal article. highlights that “Producing feedstock for anaerobic digestion (AD) plants will be one of the key measures to reduce agricultural emissions by 2030 according to the Government’s Climate Action Plan.“

Should we aim to implement our Climate Action plan ? Absolutely! But don’t throw the environment and communities and planning regulations under the green bus .

This is unfortunately exactly what happened with the Derrybrien Windfarm.

Will history repeat itself?

The Derrybrien Windfarm debacle has not been fully resolved – It’s been 20 years since An Bord Pleanála gave permission, 17 years since ESB kick-started an unauthorized development and 13 years since ESB first refused to do a retrospective mitigation. It was however, only yesterday we added €15,000 to the €15 million fine and we’ll do the same again today and tomorrow. We (not the ESB) are still paying the price for Environmental malpractice that was done 20 years ago.

One thing is clear, if An Bord Pleanála go against local Authority decision and grant planning permission for the proposed Biogas plant in Gort then once again South Galway Community may have to repeat history and rally and challenge the decision all the way to the European Court.

The following was a warning from GreenNews Ireland in Nov 2019 , on the announcement of the massive European fine:

This issue was deemed so severe that the Court took it into account when setting the high penalty for the State. The fines imposed should now act as a big wake-up call for our Government. If not, the next Derrybrien may be just around the corner and would again leave our natural landscape, our biodiversity and our citizens footing the bill for our ongoing failure to adhere to environmental law.

There is a big conflict here and there shouldn’t be. On ‘paper’ there shouldn’t be any chance that Galway County Council’s planning refusal would be overturned. An Bord Pleanála with it’s impartiality have all facts they need to make the right decision here. There remains, however, probably with the legacy of the Derrybrien Windfarm, a lack of trust to do the right thing.

David Murray

References :

Derrybrien: Our dismal failure to uphold the law

Rude awakening on Biogas plant investments

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The developers behind the Gort Biogas plant are having some interesting financial dynamics recently. Glenmore Generation Limited (GGL), the developers of the Biogas Plant in Ballybofey, the sister company of Sustainable Bio-Energy Limited (proposers of the Gort Biogas plant) has secured permission to waive £37 million in loan repayments due to its funders in a major restructuring plan after recording a pre-tax loss of £23.6m in 2019. According to a report the accounts reveal value of the Ballybofey plant and machinery was devalued by around £16m between the end of 2018 and 2019.

The Glenmore plant was initially set up in 2016 to turn 25,000 tonnes of poultry litter from Northern Ireland each year into energy, supplying power to manufacturers including Bombardier and Montupet. Glenmore Generation Limited, contracted an Engineering firm Williams Industrial Services (WIS) to build the plant but in 2018, the engineering firm went into administration after cash problems caused by a contractual dispute involving a £23m project in Donegal.

The Gort Biogas Proposal is centered on feeding mostly silage to the Biogas plant which compared to food or poultry waste is an extremely costly raw material to feed biogas plants. This should certainly cast a shadow of doubt over the viability of the proposed Biogas Plant in Gort, which maybe is not quite as ‘Sustainable’ as their name suggests

Gort Biogas Resistance Flairs

Poetry Protest!

We have our own portest poem Gort Biogas Plant vs. W.B Yeats from Leo Smyth

Biogas Begone!

A song from local Legend Niall Finnegan! (Lyrics from Richard Joyce and Niall!)

“This just shows that the resolve of the people in South Galway holds true. Too much is at stake for the people of Gort and the fragile local environment to let this development go ahead. The impact and legacy of this development on the entire area weighted by the economic benefit to a few private developers is simply too much to ask the people to bear. One thing the global pandemic has taught us is to value our local surroundings. Local amenities such as the Gort River Walk have been a lifeline during these times.

The people of Gort fully support the decision of Galway County Council to refuse planning permission for this development and it is hoped that An Bord Pleanála uphold this ruling.

On behalf of the Gort Biogas Concerns Group, I would like to thank everybody for the support we are getting – from the artists to the sign-hangers, to the people and businesses who have supported us in our mission to stop this disastrous development
Ciaran O’ Donnell, Chair Gort Biogas Concerns Group

An Bord Pleanála’s decision is due on April 20.

Galway Green Party Opposes Gort Biogas Proposal

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The proposed Biogas Plant at Gort is very close to the Gort River and Town

The Galway Green Party lodged a submission in support of Galway County Council’s decision to refuse planning permission for the application to build a Biogas plant in the outskirts of Gort.

Aonghus Kelly from the Galway Greens stated that “The Green Party has consistently been in favour of sustainable solutions to Ireland and Galway’s energy needs in order to provide a better, safer, cleaner Gort, Galway and Ireland for all our citizens. Biogas can and should form part of the solution. However, sadly this application is far from that aim.”

Frank Farrell also from the Galway Greens stated that “A flawed decision now to allow this plant would damage the town of Gort, its hinterland and cost the state and therefore her citizens large amounts of money in years to come.”

“If the Galway Green Party doesn’t support the development of a supposedly ‘Green Plant’ then it just shows the flaws in the overall proposal. “, said Ciaran O’ Donnell of the Gort Biogas Concerns Group. “Were this plant to go ahead it could have a detrimental impact on the people of South Galway, and the wonderful natural environment we live in”

The decision by an Bord Pleanala on whether or not to grant planning permission will be made in April this year.