Madam, - Landslides like that at Maghanknockane, Co Kerry will happen again and again unless local authorities and An Bord Pleanála appreciate the process by which wind farm construction can cause such damage.
The boglands on the hills take thousands of years to form and once they slide away they are irreplaceable. What happens is as follows:
1. The bogs on the hills are formed by rotting heather over thousands of years, but they are finely held together by the network formed by the roots of the heather. This blanket of bog is draped on the hilltops, like a rug thrown over the back of a couch.
2. When a wind farm is constructed, excavators cut into the network of the bogland roots until they reach the rock below to form roads so that heavy machinery can reach the windmill sites. These incisions into the mesh of roots holding the bogland together is like cutting the rug across the top of the couch. The bog below has only its grip on the underlying rocks to hold them in place. At this level there are no roots, and the bog is virtually liquid. When heavy rains come the whole bog just slides down the mountain.
Local authorities and planning boards must insist that:
1. Only where windmills are placed on rock can limited incision be made. This must be reinforced by an encircling chain mesh and additional planting.
2. Roads to and from windmills can be formed only in the traditional way, by using branches of whins (gorse) laid across the bog to stop the machines from sinking.
3. Cables to the windmills units must be laid across the surface of the bogs.
4. The weight of machines used in the construction and maintenance of wind farms must be minimal.
If the above guidelines were observed by contractors and policed by local authorities, they would preserve our priceless boglands. - Yours, etc,
BRENDAN P. GALLAGHER, (Architect), Letterkenny, Co Donegal.