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Seafood producers
concerned about water quality in Clew Bay are opposing a plan to dispose
of treated toxic leachate from a Mayo landfill site into Clew Bay
by Mayo County Council. Analysis of the leachate from Derrinumera
landfill near Newport for Mayo County Council shows a cocktail of
chemicals including priority hazardous substances, which can pose
a threat to human health and the marine environment.
The Clew Bay
Marine Forum representing fish farmers and fishermen, the Clew Bay
CLAM's (Co-ordinated Local Aquaculture Management) group representing
the aquaculture businesses and the Marine Institute research centre
at Furnace have all highlighted their concerns in submissions to
an Environmental Impact Statement. The EIS due out in mid November
on the Council's proposals has been postponed until January 2005.
An Environmental
Impact Statement (EIS) is a document produced after an Environmental
Impact Assessment (EIA) is undertaken and is a process for anticipating
the effects on the environment caused by a proposed development
or project at a particular site. Clew Bay has an important aquaculture
industry, which employed 165 people in 2000 and produced mussels
and oysters worth €753,213 and finfish worth €1,158,717.
Inner Clew Bay with its many islands and shallow bays is designated
a candidate Special Area of Conservation with habitats and species
of European importance (common seals and otters).
The
bay is a widely acclaimed area of outstanding natural beauty, with
three Blue Flag beaches, which are very significant for Mayo's image
and tourism industry
The Council
proposes to install a leachate treatment plant at Derrinumera landfill
and to discharge the treated leachate in to Clew Bay in conjunction
with a new sewerage scheme at Newport. The Council is also seeking
an amended waste licence for a new sludge hub centre and a leachate
treatment plant at Derrinumera landfill from the Environmental Protection
Agency. The Council's consultants E.G. Pettit & Co. and Tobin
Consulting Engineers began preparing two Environmental Impact Statements
in 2003, one for the new sewerage treatment plant for Newport and
another for a sludge hub centre and leachate treatment plant at
Derrinumera landfill. Both EIS's will have to be approved by An
Bord Pleanála.
Last year the
consultants met several times, with selected stakeholders, to present
details of the Council's proposals and to identify issues to be
addressed in the EIS's. Individual meetings were held with the Marine
Institute, Furnace; Clew Bay Marine Forum; Clew Bay CLAM's group;
Newport House Hotel; the Irish Shellfish Association and the Newport
& District Development Company.
The first three
of these groups made written submissions to the Council last July
noting " time constraints at the meetings made it difficult
to discuss the proposals fully". When asked last July if Mayo
County Council planned to have a public meeting to provide information
about the Council's proposals, Mr. Joe O'Beirne, the Council's chief
engineer said he doesn't "see the necessity for a public meeting."
Concerns
Highlighted Over Deteriorating Water Quality
Last year the
European Commission upheld a complaint by the Irish Shellfish Association
that Ireland's government had failed to uphold the Shellfish Waters
Directive. The Directive's purpose in 1979 was to ensure member
states took concrete measures to protect shellfish waters from pollution.
Each country
had to designate shellfish waters, to set water quality standards
and to prevent any deterioration in water quality. The State was
obliged to designate all its shellfish waters under this Directive
in 1981. Instead the government passed the Fisheries Act 1980, section
54 making aquaculture unlawful except under a fish culture license,
an oyster bed license, an aquaculture license or an oyster fishery
order.
Legal opinion
suggests that after 1981 the state had no right to permit pollution
to increase - thereby reducing water quality standards to a level
where shellfish had to be depurated (cleansed of bacteria harmful
to human health). By failing to uphold the obligations of the Shellfish
Waters Directive the way is open for a case against local authorities
for failing to incorporate the Directive into their statutes properly
and to protect the water quality of coastal bays and estuaries from
deterioration.
The Clew Bay
Marine Forum, in a submission to Mayo County Council last July,
expressed "extreme concern" that "the marine industries
in Clew Bay will be adversely affected should these proposals go
ahead". The forum's secretary Niall O'Boyle points out that
while the provision of a new waste water treatment plant in Newport
would help improve water quality in Newport bay the addition of
treated leachate from Derrinumera landfill and a sludge hub centre
are "separate proposals and threaten to reduce water quality
considerably."
Threat
To Water Quality Alarms Seafood Industry
The main concern
of the CBMF is to protect the current water quality classification
of Clew Bay issued by the Department of Communications, Marine and
Natural Resources. Clew Bay's water quality is classified as an
A category production area (outside of Westport and Newport bays)
and a B category production area (in Westport and Newport bays)
for shellfish.
An "A"
area has water of the highest quality and shellfish can be collected
for direct human consumption. Whereas in a "B" area shellfish
can be collected, but may only be placed on the market for human
consumption after treatment in a purification centre or by relaying
in clean water.
CBMF Secretary
Niall O'Boyle says, "Any further deterioration in water quality
in Clew Bay directly threatens the competitiveness and sustainability
of the local aquaculture industry, worth an estimated €1.5
million to the local economy."
The Council's
proposal to discharge treated leachate including bioaccumulative
chemicals, heavy metals, and hormone-disrupting chemicals into Clew
Bay has alarmed the seafood industry. The CBMF have called on the
Council to carry out an independent risk assessment for the EIS
to ensure that the proposal to discharge will not have an adverse
impact on Clew Bay's seafood production. The forum has also stated
that it is "strongly opposed" to proposals to discharge
leachate from Derrinumera into the Westport sewerage treatment plant
even as a temporary measure. In their concluding remarks the forum
state that, "we feel that these proposals place too much emphasis
on dilution and not enough on treatment and are a threat to our
survival."
They also emphsize
that, "to date consultation and follow up communication have
failed to reassure, and our concerns have increased."
Shellfish
Farmers Oppose Leachate Discharge
The Clew Bay
CLAM's shellfish and finfish farmers group submission to the Council
welcomes the provision of a new waste water treatment plant and
sewerage scheme in Newport but has "grave concerns over the
proposed disposal of the leachate from Derrinumera landfill into
Newport Bay and the interim disposal through Westport treatment
plant."
The group's
Chairman James Ryan, advises Mayo County Council that they must
comply with the Dangerous Substances Regulations S.I.12 of 2001
and the Quality of Shellfish regulations S.I. No.200 of 1994 which
lists Clew Bay as an area of shellfish waters which is in need of
protection or improvement in order to support shellfish life and
growth. They raise questions in their submission concerning the
content and treatment of the leachate, the leachate outfall location,
unacceptably high levels of bacterial contamination from the leachate,
monitoring plans and the content of the EIS.
A letter from
the Marine Institute to MCC in 2002 states "given that Clew
Bay is designated under the EU Quality of shellfish Waters Regulations
(SI No.200/1994 & EU79/923), the inclusion of dump leachate
in the outflow from the Newport Scheme must be viewed as unwise."
It also suggests that placing the outfall further out where the
tide is not entering directly into an estuary should be investigated.
The Council
may well have to revise its plans as the location of a similar proposed
discharge pipe outfall from the Corrib gas terminal into a marine
Special Area of Conservation in Broadhaven Bay was relocated 500metres
outside the boundary of Broadhaven Bay's SAC in 2002. This occurred
after the EIS was evaluated by Duchas and the DCMNR's Marine License
Vetting Committee and protests by local fishermen. This decision
was made because of lack of information of the effluent composition
and its potential impact on the marine environment.
As the Marine
Times goes to press we can reveal a group of Clew Bay residents
and marine interests are seeking counsel regarding the legal status
of the council's plans to discharge leachate into Clew Bay.
The Irish Shellfish
Association is also understood to have made a further submission
to the EU Commission on the lack of implementation of the Shellfish
Waters Directive citing as an example, Mayo County Council's plans
to further discharge treated leachate into Clew Bay's shellfish
waters.
Report
by S. Fennelly
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