The ESB yesterday lodged its €200 million plan to carry out a massive environmental clean-up of its coal-burning Moneypoint power station in Co Clare.
The clean-up is necessary to allow the station to operate past 2008 in order to comply with a licence granted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last year requiring that pollution levels be drastically cut at the station, which supplies the State with one quarter of its electricity.
The size of the task the ESB faces is huge, with the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) lodged with the plan recording that the station emits 40,000 tonnes of sulphur dioxide (SO2) and 22,000 tonnes of nitrogen oxide into the atmosphere each year from the station's two 715 ft high chimneys.
The company has to reduce these overall emissions by 80 per cent by January 1st 2008 and the plan lodged with the council to achieve this target is the largest received by the local authority in recent years.
The planning fee alone for the project is calculated at €50,000. To lodge plans for a single house costs €65.
The proposed installation of the environmental safeguards at the plant has resulted in the ESB, as part of the overall plan, lodging plans for a 100-acre landfill site within the Moneypoint site to deal with the residue generated by the process.
The effort to reduce SO2 emissions alone will lead to 105,000 tonnes of by-product being generated each year. This will be landfilled after being stabilised by mixing it with 40,000 tonnes of coal ash and water. The landfill has a life-span until 2019.
The project will cause considerable disturbance to the infrastructure in west Clare during the construction phase, with the EIS stating that 1,655 heavy goods vehicles will deliver materials to the site during the three years of construction starting in 2005.
A number of houses will also be affected, with 74 homes located within 2 kilometres of the station and 24 houses within 1 kilometre of the development site.
A final decision by the ESB board will not be made until June next year as to whether to proceed with the work. However, the implications for the local economy will be massive either way .
According to the EIS, half of the 376 station staff live in the Kilrush area, while the station remains the largest single contributor of rates to the county council at over €10 million each year.
The EIS states that up to 150 jobs will be created during the construction phase of the €200 million project, while €10 million will be spent annually on consumables and plant maintenance when the project becomes operational. A decision is expected to be made by Clare County Council on the plan later this year.
