Shell E&P Ireland has halted peat excavation at its Corrib gas terminal site in north Mayo due to pollution of a local river.
The decision was taken in response to a warning from the North Western Regional Fisheries Board (NWRFB) that it would consider legal action if discharges of silt into the Bellanaboy river, a tributary of Carrowmore lake, continued.
The river has one of the most important angling fisheries in the region, the board says.
The multinational has been excavating 450,000 cubic metres of peat from the bog at Bellanaboy to transport it to a Bord na Móna deposition site at Srahmore, about 11km away, as part of the Corrib gas onshore terminal construction project.
The six-month peat transfer, which calls for some 800 truck movements a day, has already run into difficulties as several trucks left the road in late April and tipped their loads.
The company also agreed to rebuild a grotto outside Bangor Erris which developed a hairline crack after the truck traffic started, while stating that it was not taking responsibility for damage to the grotto's statue.
NWRFB manager Vincent Roche said the fisheries board had expressed concerns during the planning stages about aspects of the bog-transfer operation.
Stringent conditions had been applied as part of the Bord Pleanála ruling which approved the terminal, he said, but a system of settlement ponds intended to prevent silt escaping into the river was not working.
Shell E&P Ireland said in a statement yesterday it had responded to the fisheries board and had acknowledged that there were occasions in the past week, during periods of heavy rain, when "environmental mitigation measures" at the site were insufficient.
The company said it had halted excavation activities since May 27th and had engaged consultants to carry out a detailed review of the management of water quality discharged from the site.
"We appreciate the advice received from the fisheries board and Mayo County Council during their recent visits to the site."
In a separate development, Independent Mayo TD Dr Jerry Cowley is seeking further answers from Minister for the Marine Noel Dempsey in the Dáil this week in relation to the latest controversy over the terminal's onshore pipeline.
The Minister confirmed last week that "independent" consultants commissioned to review risk assessments of the proposed high pressure pipeline were jointly owned by Shell and BP.
Mr Dempsey has ordered a new independent review of the information before proceeding to grant consent for the installation and commissioning of the pipeline.
Dr Cowley and constituency colleague Michael Ring (FG) have called on the Government to insist that an offshore terminal be built in view of serious safety concerns.
