Community Response to Ballymoney Power's Environmental Statement

Shortly after Ballymoney Power submitted their initial planning proposal to build a lignite mine and power station outside Ballymoney the Just Say No To Lignite Campaign began. One of the first actions undertaken was to prepare a Community Response to Ballymoney Power's Environmental Statement (898kB, PDF). This report was submitted to Angela Smith M.P. (Minister with Responsibility for the Department of the Environment) for a meeting on the 4th of April 2003. Some of the conclusions were

• There is no natural fit in the electricty supply equation for a plant of this type.
• Many elements of the plan run counter to the UK government's current proposals for energy generation in the future, as expressed in the Energy White Paper (2003).
• As part of an island, Northern Ireland is particularly well suited to the generation of energy from renewable resources. Commercially viable projects invloving renewables - e.g. wind, biomass - can be found throughout the province. Expansion of these offer realistic alternatives to lignite, particularly in the long-term.
• In drawing up their Environmental Statement, Ballymoney Power do not appear to have consulted medical experts. The impacts on human health have, therefore, not been addressed in this document. The association between lignite and human disease is well proven.
• Some of the impacts on land include the generation of waste, land loss, increases in land toxicty, hydrological and hydrogeological damage, imapacts on neighbouring Protected Areas, and archaeological losses. The Environemental Statement offers little convincing evidence that these impacts can be successfully mitagted against.