Tag Archives: Rusal Aughinish alumina refinery

Futureproof Clare was among the 20 groups that participated in a national protest this Tuesday to try to stop planning approval for more rock-blasting at the bauxite refining site at Rusal Aughinish Alumina plant in Co Limerick. The groups who have come together in protest at Rusal’s proposed move include Futureproof Clare, Friends of the Irish Environment, Slí Eile, and the Cappagh Farmers Support Group, whose founder Pat Geoghegan has long campaigned against the facility. Tim Hannon of Futureproof Clare said the group is “extremely determined” to stop the blasting from going ahead at the plant. He was speaking at a press event in Dublin on Tuesday to discuss a planning application by Aughinish Alumina to expand its disposal site for the ‘red mud’ created as a by-product from the bauxite refining process. Mr Hannon told the event at the Teachers Club in Dublin, which heard from academic experts regarding the potential pollutant effects of bauxite refineries, that the Aughinish …

TWO large Bauxite Residue Disposal Areas (BRDA) totalling an estimated 450 acres are akin to a “ticking time bomb” on the site of the largest European alumina facility located near the Shannon Estuary, a Dáil deputy has claimed. In a hard-hitting statement issued in the Dáil this week, Deputy Paul Murphy of People Before Profit claimed “there is a toxic time bomb ticking at Rusal Aughinish Alumina Limited (AAL) near Askeaton”. . “I remember visiting it when it was Aughinish Alumina, almost ten years ago, and meeting local campaigner Pat Geoghegan, who I believe the Taoiseach met when he was Minister for Health. I saw a massive, red mud storage area, which is now so big it can be seen from space. “It comprises 50 million tonnes of toxic waste. Uranium, lead, mercury and hazardous salt cake are contained within it. “It seeps into the estuary, it kills wildlife and it threatens public health. It is a result of bauxite …

THE government has never launched a “proper” investigation into the impact of the Rusal Aughinish alumina refinery on people and the environment, a local lobby group has claimed. A four-agency investigation team, which carried out work in the late nineties, concluded that environmental pollution, toxic substances in the diet, soil composition anomalies and herbage composition are all “unlikely causes of animal health problems” on two farms in the Askeaton area. The EPA-led investigation also stated an independent human health problem arising from atmospheric emissions in the area is “unlikely given that, since the mid-1980s, air quality measurements in the area have complied with EU standards”. In a wide-ranging address in Limerick on Saturday, Emanuela Ferrari from Future Proof Clare, alleged the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) keeps granting licenses to major industries, while the Oireachtas keeps “favouring corporate power over people’s wellbeing”. She outlined the Rusal factory is the biggest alumina processing plant in Europe. Aluminium – and a lot of …