CAMPAIGN group No Gas Caverns and Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland are coming together today to take their battle against what they say is a “hugely damaging fossil fuel development" at Larne Lough to the High Court in Belfast.
The judicial review hearing, which is scheduled to last four days, seeks to overturn the decision of former Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Daera) minister Edwin Poots to authorise the construction of a gas storage facility under the seabed at Larne Lough.
Under the plans, seven underground caverns, each the size of a skyscraper, would be carved out of salt layers under the lough by a method known as solution mining.
Harland & Wolff Group Holdings is behind what it says it a “pioneering facility” aimed at providing safe, secure and flexible gas storage that will serve the island of Ireland and mainland UK.
The seven salt caverns, when fully developed, will be capable of storing up to half a billion cubic metres of gas in Permian salt beds approximately 1,500 metres below Larne Lough.
H&W, which has conducted a number of surveys into the viability of the scheme, also wants to integrate hydrogen storage into the project, and just last month a study by Atkins found that this is “technically feasible based on existing technologies”, though it would cost at least £168 million more in capital expenditure than originally envisaged.
But campaigners argue that the resulting hypersaline salt and chemical solution created by the excavation process would be discharged into the sea in a protected marine area near Islandmagee, creating a “dead zone” where no marine life could survive.
Eleven Northern Ireland priority species, which are given protection under legislation, are found within 100 metres of the discharge point, including harbour porpoise and skate.
The groups warn that the hypersaline nature and chemical composition of this discharge will also extend for several kilometres and will have a significant detrimental effect on the local environment.
The development will take approximately 12 years to become fully operational and the energy required to fill the caverns with gas and keep it at a safe temperature and pressure will make it one of Northern Ireland's largest energy users.
This is the first case of its kind in Northern Ireland, where the courts will be asked to grapple with the implications of climate change.
The campaign groups will argue that developments that stand to impact the local environment and climate change goals so drastically should be subject to the highest degree of decision making, accountability and transparency.
Lisa Dobbie of No Gas Caverns said: “We're a group of ordinary people forced to take extraordinary action against a government department who we believe have failed to properly assess the impacts of this highly damaging fossil fuel project.
“It is incredibly difficult for citizens to access environmental justice in Northern Ireland, but with the actions of a very determined group of residents, an expert legal team and the support of hundreds of people who have donated so generously, we stand with Friends of the Earth ready for this important case to proceed.”
James Orr, director of Friends of the Earth NI, said: “We are standing today with the residents of Islandmagee to protect this beautiful part of Northern Ireland. The destruction caused by this mining is landscape trauma. The gas caverns project is not wanted and is not welcome. We are in court because of flagrant breaches of environmental law.
“Let’s be in no doubt that we will not be held to ransom to the fossil fuel companies that are behind this project. They are on the wrong side of history if they think they can drive through new fossil fuel infrastructure in a climate emergency.”
