The Uplift community funded research into the local impacts of the proposed Shannon fracked gas import terminal (Shannon LNG). We wanted to get a clear picture of what a huge, industrial development like this would actually mean to the local area, the people, and communities that live beside or near the site, and the famous resident bottlenose dolphins that call the Shannon estuary their home. Below are some of the most important points.
Damage to the landscape
The fracked gas import terminal, if it goes ahead, will have a massive impact on the surrounding landscape; changing it from traditional farmland and a beautiful, relatively unspoilt estuarine landscape to a large industrial facility.
Construction there will be very disruptive and harmful to the surrounding areas including noise from blasting and large amounts of daily traffic and dozens of large trucks making deliveries every day.
Driving inflation in house prices and construction
There is an ongoing labour shortage in the construction industry slowing down house building and contributing to the rise in home prices. [1] Yet it is expected that this development will require almost 650 jobs during the construction phase taking workers away from building homes or working on projects that benefit everybody.
Noise
During construction there will be a massive amount of noise from traffic and from rock blasting. Throughout the general operation of the terminal there would be a non-stop, industrial humming noise.
Local health impact
The change from traditional, rural, estuarine landscape to an industrialised one will destroy the view and recreational pursuits like birdwatching, dolphin watching, and angling in the area that generations of people have enjoyed.
Massive traffic congestion will harm human health due to noise, air pollution, and the disruption to the community.
LNG is one of the most polluting fuels to burn for electricity. Fossil fuels like LNG are directly contributing to extreme weather events like flooding, drought, and extreme storms like storm Éowyn that left many people without electricity for weeks. [2]
Water pollution
The Shannon Estuary is a Special Protection Area due to its importance for overwintering water birds.
Shannon LNG will be sucking up water from the estuary, chlorinate it, use it to heat up the super cooled fracked gas, and return it to the estuary at a much colder temperature.
At other locations they will be releasing polluted, heated water of 40C into the estuary.
Effect on dolphins
The Shannon estuary is the most important site for bottlenose dolphins in Europe. This facility would be really harmful to the special population of dolphins who have lived in harmony with the people of Kerry and Clare for generations.
Found that the noise of an incoming LNG ship would disturb dolphins up to a kilometer away and would disrupt seals up to almost 3km away.
Pile driving during construction has the potential to cause permanent and temporary hearing damage in dolphins who experience the world around them using their hearing and a study done back in 2010 showed that over half of beached dolphins had partial or total hearing loss; this makes them unable to hunt, find their family, or figure out where they are, so they get disoriented and end up beached. [3]
Fish
Pile driving could also result in mass death of fish and hearing damage up to 2km away.
Porpoises and certain types of fish could also suffer from temporary and permanent hearing damage due to pile driving.
The Shannon estuary has been a famous fishing destination for generations, but between water polluted with chlorine, sediment kicked up, and continuous noise causing fish death and hearing loss, the Shannon LNG terminal would put an end to that.
Climate and emissions
Shannon LNG has claimed that the plant wouldn’t be operating at full capacity all year round but their parent company, New Fortress Energy openly admits that the plan is to build a load of data centres there to be fed by the LNG terminal and powerplant. [4]
If the government doesn’t quickly switch the country to clean, cheap renewables, then we will be landed with fines of up to €26 Billion, all to power some US datacentres..
