Huge turnout for Gort biogas plant meeting now nearing the planning endgame
Eight years into the battle, the Gort Biogas Concern Group is now turning its attention to preparing a response to the latest submission from the developers to a further information request from An Coimisiún Pleanála (ACP).
Eight years into their 'David and Goliath' battle against the Gort Biogas plant, campaigners have vowed to unequivocally prove the project has failed to meet basic environmental tests in the latest development in the ongoing saga.
Around 140 people, including a raft of local and national politicians, turned out to a meeting on Monday to discuss the project which is nearing the endgame in its marathon planning journey.
The Gort Biogas Concern Group is now turning its attention to preparing a response to the latest submission from the developers to a further information request from An Coimisiún Pleanála (ACP).
Spokesman Ciaran O' Donnell believes the reply by Sustainable Bio-Energy Limited is merely a rehash of previous submissions and the company has failed to address critical environmental concerns consistently raised by Galway County Council planners and residents.
They have not updated an Environmental Impact Statement from 2018, even after a raft of fresh studies have been carried out on flood risk as part of the South Galway Gort Lowlands Flood Relief Scheme, regarded as one of the most complex ever undertaken in the country with its network of wallow holes, turloughs and underground water channels.
“They have not provided information on identifying local landbanks to accept the 150,000 tonnes of digestate produced annually; on the major accident assessment risk requirements; on water demand for the plant - calculated at the equivalent of over 300 domestic houses; on flooding risks; on the impact and routing of HGV traffic on the town and road safety; on noise, odour and impact on the town and its ability to develop and prosper,” he told the Connacht Tribune.
“Placing a major industrial installation the size of Kinvara in a sensitive landscape of karst limestone, groundwater connections, rivers, turloughs and protected habitats could result in catastrophic pollution entering this underground network which would move rapidly into the surrounding area. It's in the wrong place and is the wrong size, right on the edge of a small town.”
The plant would be one of Ireland's largest commercial biogas facilities, processing 90,000 tonnes per year of feedstock, including agricultural slurry, food compost, silage and fish waste.
Producing methane gas for energy, alongside 150,000 tonnes of liquid digestate or slurry fertiliser, this would then be spread across land within a 50km radius in South Galway and North Clare.
Sustainable Bio-Energy Limited submitted its first planning application to build a commercial anaerobic digestion facility on a 25-acre site less than 1 km from Gort town centre in 2018.
“It's got the same footprint as Kinvara , it has two flame stacks bigger than the spires of St Colman's Church just 600m away. It's 10m from a river feeding into 28 different special areas of conservation, including the Burren. The latest 100-year flood study shows it's sitting on a flood plain. It's as plain as the nose on your face this shouldn't go ahead.”
The application was subsequently withdrawn later that year. In December 2019 the developer submitted a second, revised application to Galway County Council, which they turned down, citing concerns over the scale of the facility, lack of proper zoning, and threats to local ecosystems.
In January 2021 the developer appealed the council's refusal to An Bord Pleanála (ABP) and after nearly two years of deliberation, it overturned the Council's decision, granting planning permission for the plant.
The Gort Biogas Concern Group then mounted a High Court challenge in August 2023, asking for a Judicial Review to quash ABP's approval. On the steps of court, lawyers for ABP conceded the case, but some months later the company were granted a remittal, which meant they could ask the planning board, now called An Coimisiún Pleanála (ACP), to reconsider the case afresh.
In the most recent move, ACP requested the developer to submit Further Information and ordered them to erect new public notices on the site.
There are at least 15 groups across the country replicating the work of the Gort campaigners to fight similar biogas plants in their communities, explains Ciaran.
“We haven't got any national planning regulations specific to this industry yet the Government want to build over 200 of these in rural areas so groups like ours have to wage a David and Goliath battle against these large multinational agri-business developers.
“It's got the same footprint as Kinvara , it has two flame stacks bigger than the spires of St Colman's Church just 600m away. It's 10m from a river feeding into 28 different special areas of conservation, including the Burren. The latest 100-year flood study shows it's sitting on a flood plain. It's as plain as the nose on your face this shouldn't go ahead and if ACP do give it the go-ahead, it will prove this is something the Government are pushing and it's not being independently evaluated.”
The group will hold a submission clinic next Monday, November 9 at 7.30pm in Sullivan's Hotel Gort to assist the public in preparing individual responses. The deadline for submissions is November 19.