Oct 02 - ESG Calls For LNG Safety Reports To Be Published
The Environmental Safety Group (ESG) says that it met in August with the Government to present its concerns regarding the power station, LNG and more general community apprehension over the lack of promised safety reports. The ESG says it was assured at that meeting that its specific recommendations for best available technology (BAT) would be researched and implemented and would be included as a condition on any approval by the DPC. The group was also assured that the safety reports were imminent, in fact, “no more than two weeks away.”
The group notes that seven weeks have now passed since that meeting. The ESG says that, as a result, the community is no nearer an understanding of the safety implications of LNG as a fuel and will rightly feel that its concerns are being ignored.
A statement concluded: “Until we can see that an independent and respected agency has issued a safety report that describes the LNG project as acceptable, the ESG, and the community in general, has to assume that the project is too ambitious and too close to residential areas, to be given the green light.
“A smaller operation that catered only for our power station requirements (no bunkering possibilities) and was situated at the detached mole, would probably find it easier to obtain approval with the report-writers and also with the community and certainly with environmentalists.
“With an election also imminent, the safety reports need to be aired in full so that this super-critical community project is transparent and the electorate informed. We need to know.”
{fcomment}
