|
A judge gave the ESB and Coillte three months last week to
put in place a legally-binding programme to save a river destroyed
in a wind-farm development.
Judge Kevin Kilrane was told that 6,000 fish, mainly trout,
were lost when tonnes of peat swept through the Owengar river
in Co Leitrim after a turbine-building project went wrong
on September 23rd, 2008.
He was told, at Manorhamilton District Court, it would take
a minimum of €500,000 over five years to restore the river
leading into Lough Allen near Drumkeeran.
Garvagh
Glebe Power - a consortium of the ESB and Coillte,
which was building 13 huge turbines on Corrie mountain - pleaded
guilty to two charges of pollution - permitting deleterious
matter into the water.
Eamonn Cusack, chief executive of Shannon Regional Fisheries
Board (ShRFB),
which brought the prosecution, welcomed the judge’s decision.
He said it was the first case won by the board relating to
prosecutions of wind-farm operators.
Another prosecution was pending on the destruction of 8,000
fish in a tributary of the Feale in Co Kerry in 2008. There
were 15,000 fish lost in Derrybrien, Co Galway in 2003, which
was successfully prosecuted by the local authority, although
the Fisheries Board prosecution was struck out.
Source - The Irish Times
|
