Reclaim the Beach: Solidarity Gathering & Protest Rally from 4th - 6th June In Co Mayo, Ireland. For more info, maps and transport details:  info@shelltosea.com Solidarity actions in other areas welcome!

After 3 years, running roughshod over local communities on the north west coast of Ireland, oil & gas giant Shell International are poised to transform a remote conservation area of outstanding natural beauty into an environmental disaster zone with serious public health & safety implications. A dangerous on-shore pipeline and massive refinery will be constructed, poisoning the area and further adding to climate change.


Shell have been given permission by the High Court to start work on the landfall where the offshore pipeline hits the beach. Shell said that if the project was delayed until late June there was a “real possibility that it would not be completed in that construction season” and hence would be delayed until next year.... Shell will lose e25,000 every day that construction is delayed after 1st June. Shell workers are free to access local people’s land after the high court served injunctions preventing them from protecting their own land.

Help local people to stop Shell.

FOR BACKGROUND ON RESIDENTS INJUNCTED BY SHELL:
 http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69084

PREVIOUS INDYMEDIA IRELAND FEATURES:
 http://www..indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69249

UK Solidarity Campaign:  stops_hell@yahoo.com

Pipeline: Shell plans to construct an unprecedented and dangerous high pressure, raw gas pipeline from the Corrib gas field, 65 km off the beautiful, wild N.W coast of Ireland which will pass through villages and over the land of small farmers, to a massive refinery to be constructed just 2 miles from the region's water source, Lake Carrowmore. At 5 times the usual pressure the pipeline will be built over unstable bog land with a history of landslides and also carry electrical cables, hydraulic fluids, cleansing acids and waste pipelines as well as odourless raw gas meaning leaks are undetectable.

The Refinery will be a massive combustion plant, with nine chimneys, some 140 ft high, releasing carbon dioxide and methane. 16 houses are within 2km radius of the plant. Accidents, leaks and toxic releases could contaminate the whole environment with chemicals such as carbon & nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide, methane and ozone. It will be constructed on unstable bog using previously untried methods to stabilise the bog surface and involve a massive amount of traffic. The wastewater storage sump design is inadequate for the regional rainfall and will overflow into Carrowmore Lake, source of the region’s water supply, despite EU and UN protected status.

Toxic Waste will be pumped into Broadhaven Bay from the refinery, including lead, nickel, magnesium, phosphorous, chromium, arsenic, mercury and the radioactive gas radon. Due to the bay’s circular tidal pattern much of this toxic waste will stay within the bay, rather than be washed out to sea, contaminating internationally important bird, whale, dolphin and fish habitats. Broadhaven Bay is a Special Area of Conservation under EU regulations and also provides livelihoods to local communities through fishing. In Shell’s Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) they omitted that the site was of importance to wildlife despite the findings of their own commissioned University College Cork (UCC) study which found that the Bay was a breeding and rearing area for whales and dolphins, recording over 220 sightings of seven whale and dolphin species, two seal species, basking sharks & a sea turtle.

Shell are responsible for the site related health problems, spills, toxic releases and murder of local peoples around their plants in Nigeria, South Africa, Texas, Louisiana, The Philippines, Curacao, Brazil. Shell routinely attempt to build over active earthquake faults through endangered wildlife habitats and frequently falsify or underreport on their Environmental Impact Assessments.www.shellfacts.com