A community living in the shadow of ‘towering monstrosity’ Aughinish Alumina has called for a public inquiry into its possible health and environmental impacts.
The Aughinish Alumina plant was built on the Limerick bank of the Shannon in 1983 and is now the biggest bauxite refinery in Europe producing 1.9 million tonnes of alumina a year.
With that output comes 50-75 million tonnes of rising ‘red mud’ stored in open pits near two protected nature sites. The lake of mud covers a 450-acre site next to the Shannon estuary.
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Aughinish Alumina’s parent company, Rusal, applied to An Bord Pleanála for planning permission last December to raise the maximum height of the mud lake where the bauxite residue is disposed of to 44 metres.
They also hope to raise the level of its hazardous salt cake to a maximum height of 35 metres. An Bord Pleanála has not made a decision yet.
Locals fear rock blasting at a new ‘borrow hole’ on Aughinish Island could send that waste sliding into the sea, sparking an environmental catastrophe.
Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska is the refinery’s biggest shareholder but it is understood former Swiss owner Glencore is in talks to retake the factory after raw material issues sparked by the Ukraine war.
Tim Hannon lives five miles as the crow flies from the Rusal-owned refinery.
He said life in the area has changed from his father’s generation to his.
“I live on the Clare side of the estuary, directly opposite the refinery and it towers, like a monstrosity, over all around it,” he explained.
“It is a scar on our landscape.
“I would be very fond of fishing with my uncle and father and he remembers the Shannon Estuary in the late 1970s.
“Since it’s been industrialised, the impact that has had on the community has made it a far less enjoyable place to spend time in.
“The Aughinish saga has been ongoing for over 20 years.
“We are calling for an immediate public inquiry into Aughinish Alumina and for the immediate cancellation for Rusal’s licence to rock blast.“
Futureproof Clare’s Emanuela Ferrari said they were protesting outside the Dáil last week to object to the expansion of the Aughinish Alumina operation.
“They are trying to expand containment of a by-product of their operation,” she said.
“They are blasting rock beside it to build the containment wall just 10 metres from the Shannon Estuary which is a really delicate ecosystem and is of incredible beauty.
“We just can’t take that risk.”
Rusal sent a letter to residents on 27 June, that we’ve seen, saying it planned to start blasting rock on the same day locals were protesting at the Dáil, 28 June.
The Environmental Protection Agency approved their application to remove 374,000m³ of rock from a 4.5 hectare pit over a ten-year period with blasting up to seven times a year, in January.
Latest concerns about the plant follow tensions in the 1990s when farmers near the plant said it impacted both the health of their families and herds.
The government’s Askeaton Investigation concluded the plant was “unlikely” to be impacting human and animal health, the environment, soil and herbage.
An EPA spokesperson said: “The impact of any pollutants on protected areas is considered prior to the issuing of any licence by the EPA.”
They also said the licence is designed to “ensure there is no impact on nearby protected areas” and that they “enforce” compliance to “avoid and minimise such impacts”.
The National Parks and Wildlife Service, which monitors the nearby Special Area of Conservation said it is “not aware of any specific issues in relation to its proximity to the plant”.
It did not respond to questions about the European rating for the SAC and designated bird sanctuary.
Aughinish Alumina did not respond to requests for a comment.
In April, it was reported Enterprise Minister Leo Varadker was trying to save around 400 jobs at the Limerick plant by exempting Aughinish Alumina from sanctions on Russia because of the Ukraine war.
The Ukrainian ambassador to Ireland called for its closure in April.
Varadkar held discussions with his French and Swedish counterparts in a bid to protect jobs at the Limerick refinery.
It was acknowledged jobs were the best argument for allowing such projects to go ahead, however Hannon said: “These jobs are there at the moment but they won’t always be.”
Aughinish Alumina also uses about 11% of Ireland’s gas demand on any given day.
The firm is understood to support liquefied natural gas projects such as Shannon LNG, despite calls for an end to fossil fuel infrastructure development in Ireland because of the climate crisis.
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