Day 2 of the Oral Hearing continued at Carrigaline Court today, 20 April 2016, with Indaver responding to concerns raised in submissions made to An Bord Pleanala.
Speaking on behalf of Indaver Ireland on coastal erosion concerns, Arup engineer Ms Julie Ascoop gave evidence which confirms that the High Water Mark (HWM) is now inside the Indaver site boundary. Ms Ascoop’s evidence was supported with a map plotted by Arup showing how HWM has changed since the OS map of 2001, and now covers part of the site every day.
This confirms CHASE statement in our observation letter to An Bord Pleanala that part of the site floods every day at high tide, and contradicts Arup witness Ken Leahy’s strong deinals yesterday of the fact that the site floods daily at high tide.
Ms Ascoop also outlined slope failures and water running out of the face of the cliff in the failure zones even though there had been no recent rain. She attributed water flow in the cliff face as playing “a significant role in the geotechnical cause of the cliff erosion.”
Dr Martin Hogan, speaking on behalf of Indaver in relation to human health, confirmed that there would be no stand alone Health Impact Assessment carried out.
Human health is currently addressed as a part of a section in the Envionmental Impact Statement and Dr Hogan, maintaining that the impact in terms of emissions would be slight stated that “One does not need a stand alone Health Impact Assessment to show this.”
Mr Hogan was responding to issues raised in CHASE submission by Epidemiologist, Anthony Staines, saying that a specific Human Impact Assessment is required. Anthony Staines will speak later in the hearing.
CHASE spokesperson said “Indaver themselves are clearly proving that their site is fundamentally unsuitable. It’s unfortunate that no cross examination is allowed at this stage in the hearing, as this application is full of holes. We look forward to cross examination at a later stage.”
The hearing will continue tomorrow with proscribed bodies due to speak first, followed by public representatives.
