The European Commission has indicated it is not prepared to approve a crucial section of the proposed Kildare bypass until it is satisfied that the £50 million scheme will not cause irreparable damage to Pollardstown Fen.
The fen, a designated Special Area of Conservation (SAC) under EU legislation, is fed by the Curragh Aquifer which also provides water for the Grand Canal and Guinness's brewery. It is the largest and most important gravel aquifer (vast source of ground water) in Ireland.
The Commission's intervention at this late stage, as the EU-funded scheme was about to go to tender, has caused serious concern to the authorities here because of the danger that it could result in a repetition of the Mutton Island impasse.
A delegation representing the National Roads Authority, Kildare County Council and the roads division of the Department of the Environment travelled to Brussels last week in an effort to reassure the Commission that all was well.
In a complaint, An Taisce claims the integrity of Pollardstown Fen is threatened by the bypass motorway, as part of it would be installed in a cutting - three kilometres long and up to six metres deep - through the Curragh Aquifer.
The volume of groundwater which would be extracted to keep the cutting dry has been estimated at 5.5 million gallons a day. This is five times the threshold at which an environmental impact statement (EIS) would be required for a public water supply. An Taisce maintains that the EIS prepared by Kildare County Council for the bypass motorway "did not properly assess the impact on the aquifer of this dewatering" and was also "inadequate" in dealing with proposals to mitigate the problem. The European Commission's environment directorate is understood to be particularly concerned about a 1993 assessment by the Office of Public Works, which concluded that the EIS was "unreliable" in its predictions about the impact on Pollardstown Fen.
The OPW recommended that the EIS should be withdrawn pending more detailed groundwater, geotechnical and ecological investigations. Alternatively, it said the bypass could be redesigned so that no significant dewatering is required.
Mr Tony Lowes, chairman of An Taisce's natural environment group, said yesterday the Commission had been unaware of the OPW's "damning" report until a copy of it was sent to Brussels as back-up documentation to support An Taisce's complaint.
The report said the mathematical model used by hydrologists to suggest that the fen would not be damaged was based on "sparse and inadequately supported" data on discharges from the aquifer and it would, therefore, be "imprudent" to rely on it.
As for mitigation measures such as permanent groundwater injection, the OPW said a hydrological scheme on this scale had never been attempted in Ireland and experience elsewhere suggested it would be expensive and fraught with technical difficulties.
An Taisce also cited the view expressed by Kildare County Council's senior planner, Mr Philip Jones, at a 1993 public inquiry that the dewatering of part of the Curragh Aquifer as a result of making the three-kilometre cut could "seriously affect" Pollardstown Fen.
Mr Jones said that if the only reason for not redesigning the scheme was to protect the amenities of the National Stud, which would be partly severed by the bypass, it was his view that this should be weighed against the need to protect the Curragh Aquifer and the fen.
"In this regard, it can be stated that the Curragh and the Fen - both of which are unique and can not be replicated - must be regarded as of much greater importance than the stud, which is man-made and could be relocated," according to the senior planner.
Mr Lowes said it was clear from this and from the OPW's assessment that EU funds were to be used "to the detriment a site now protected under the Habitats Directive", with the aim of protecting "private interests" at the expense of environmental balance.
He also noted that the Department of the Environment inspectors who conducted the public inquiry had recommended in their report, dated May 1994, that Kildare County Council should "immediately design and implement" a groundwater monitoring programme.
Its purpose would be to monitor existing groundwater conditions and dependent flora and fauna in the area that may be affected by the proposed cut through the aquifer and to implement any remedial measures, with "particular attention being paid to Pollardstown Fen".
In January 1996, the then Minister for the Environment, Mr Howlin, sanctioned the road scheme - including the three-kilometre cutting - and one of his officials wrote to the county council drawing its attention to the need for such a monitoring programme.
However, even though this was put in place the following June, with representatives of the OPW on the steering group, Mr Lowes said An Taisce was "far from convinced" that Pollardstown Fen would not be damaged by the proposed motorway bypass.
