Help us inform the communities on the other side of The Dee about the plans to build an experimental Underground Coal Gasification plant between Northwest Wales & the Wirral.
Volunteers are urgently needed on BANK HOL MONDAY 4th May, to do the information stall at Llanasa Village Car boot, Flintshire, CH8 9NF.
Also to leaflet on the Sat 2nd May in Mostyn,
& Sat 9th & Sun 10th May in Prestatyn.
Lifts can be provided, please contact WAF at protectwirral@hotmail.com to offer your help, including your phone number please.
Here is the press release giving details of the Awareness Campaign & dates of the Information evenings…
CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE
Communities on both sides of The Dee unite against UCG plans for Point Of Ayr
A license has been granted to allow a controversial method to extract gas from the coal bed deep under the Dee estuary.
The Point of Ayr License covers 6,953 Hectares of the Dee estuary, and was sold to Cluff Natural Resources Ltd, to allow the experimental process of Underground Coal Gasification (UCG).
There are major concerns around the safety of UCG, and is often one of the three controversial techniques referred to in the media as ‘Fracking’.
UCG is a process that is still at an experimental stage. It is an attempt at reaching the coal that is inaccessible by conventional methods. Bore holes are drilled into the coal bed, deep underground, and the coal is set alight.
Once the combustion has started, the fire is starved of oxygen in order to produce a mixture of gases, Syngas, which is extracted for processing at the surface. Also a wide variety of toxic hydrocarbons are produced, of particular concern are the known carcinogenic Benzene, Toluene and Phenols.
UCG is still an experimental process, small trials have been done in Turkey, Hungary, South Africa, USA & Australia aiming to prove its commercial viability. A number of publicised failures have followed, with contamination of ground water from Benzene, Toluene and Phenols, in one USA report groundwater was still polluted 20 years after the trial.
In 2010 Cougar Energy’s demonstration plant in Kingaroy, Australia was shut down after just 5 days when an independent scientific panel detected benzene and toluene in groundwater, as well as in the fat of grazing cattle. Benzene concentrations in groundwater were 45 times the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines.
As the UCG process is studied it becomes apparent that there are many points where it is unclear that the toxic by-products can be reliably contained and the local population’s health and safety may not be adequately protected.
Now the UCG industry brings its trails to the UK, and the Dee estuary and so the people living near by and the unique environment of the area is under threat by the potential risks.
Over on the Wirral concerned residents have formed the community group Wirral Against Fracking (WAF) and have been campaigning for the last 12 months to raise public awareness of the plans for UCG in The Dee.
There are over ten anti-fracking community groups formed across Merseyside, Cheshire and North Wales and together they have formed a coalition group called Frack Free Dee (FFD), to pool their resources in order to oppose the fracking industry.
Members of FFD are gravely concerned about the lack of public knowledge in Flintshire and Denbighshire about the real risks of UCG and are holding two public awareness meetings for the communities local to the Point of Ayr licence.
There will be a factual presentation of the UCG industry and the risks laid out with references and evidence from the trials elsewhere. Then the opportunity for the audience to ask questions.
FFD hope to provide the local residents of this area access to information so they can make their own informed decision on if they want UCG to take place in their own Welsh Coastal communities.
Find the FFD Information stall on
BANK HOL MONDAY 4th May, at Llanasa Village Car boot, Flintshire, CH8 9NF.
The Public Awareness Events are –
Wed 13th May (7.30pm start) – Old Tavern Inn, Coast Road, Mostyn, CH8 9DX.
Thurs 21st May (7.30pm start) – Prestatyn Constitutional Club, 15 Eden Ave, Prestatyn, LL19 9DL.
http://www.frackfreedee.co.uk
https://wirralagainstfracking.wordpress.com/
- Licence area Point of Ayr – Flintshire/Wirral.
http://www.cluffnaturalresources.com/images/DeeEstuary.jpg
- A good account of UCG trials with refs
http://www.resilience.org/stories/2014-05-21/slapping-campaigners-for-telling-the-truth-the-underground-coal-gasification-lobby-turns-even-nastier
- Cougar Energy Shut Down after only 5 days
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-energy/coal-gas-company-banned-in-queensland-for-contaminating-groundwater/story-e6frg9df-1226090511694
- Linc Energy’s Queensland (Australia) UCG test-plant has been found to have poisoned workers,16 March 2015
http://www.abc.net.au/…/linc-energy-alleged-to-have…/6323982