DCC’s Big Lie: ‘Incineration Vindicated by ESRI’

Big Lie: Paid-for ESRI report vindicates the proposed Poolbeg Incinerator.

Truth:  DCC’s secret incinerator contract will probably prevent recycling, as a Covanta contract just did in Florida.

[Because of Covanta Contract] “…we’re also not promoting recycling in a big way right now.”   - Waste Boss Daryl Smith, Lake County, Florida.  Dec 2009.

Big Lie: Energy from the incineration of Dublin’s organic waste will provide about 52 MW of electricity.

Truth:  Incineration is a wanton waste of a great resource.  [See letter below].

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Letter, Irish Times.   Emphasis added.
http://www.irishtimes.com/letters/index.html#1224264271972

Madam,

It was considered that the ESRI report, commissioned by the Dublin City Council (DCC) vindicated the recommendation of the council engineers and executive to proceed with plans for an incinerator at Poolbeg. However, questions have been raised about significant matters in the report.

During the past two years I have repeatedly invited the DCC executive to engage in an open debate regarding the wisdom of spending more than €300 million on a technology that is being rapidly outdated. Invariably they have refused. I now read that the Dublin City Council has paid €21 million (€15 million more than originally agreed) to their consultant advisers who would seem to recommend the construction of the incinerator facility at Poolbeg.

My colleagues and I would have been willing, in the course of debate, to offer advice free because we believe that incineration is a wanton waste of a great resource. Had the €21 million been spent on well-directed research it is highly likely there would be available now a technology that could provide an equitable solution for the so-called “waste” issue.

The views expressed here reflect what we are learning from work at our Carbolea Centre. That work has been, and is being supported by the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Natural Resources, Enterprise Ireland, the EPA, and the European Union, and Science Foundation Ireland. Our research has taught us that the so-called organic waste can have enormous value.

It is claimed the energy from the incineration of Dublin’s organic waste will provide about 52 MW of electricity. Up to 80 per cent of that energy will be provided by the plastics (which of course can be profitably recycled) in the materials provided. We have not been informed of the energy value from the incineration of the wet, non-plastic containing incinerator feedstock.

Our studies show that the so-called wastes contain significant amounts (30-50 per cent) of carbohydrates, some of which can be biologically digested. The carbohydrates that resist biological (or enzymatic) transformations, when subjected to second generation biorefining processes, can provide a range of fuels, fuel additives, and platform chemicals for manufacturing industries whose raw materials are now sourced in petroleum and petrochemicals.

In addition, the residual materials, when subjected to pyrolysis technologies, yield syngas, bio-oil, and biochar. The syngas can be used as a source of energy or made into valuable chemical products. The bio-oil can be upgraded to diesel-additive standard, and the biochar enhances plant growth and resists biodegradation in the amended soils.

The appropriate utilisation of Dublin city waste could lead to significant employment opportunities. It should not be necessary for Dublin residents to pay for the “disposal” of their so-called waste. Instead it should be possible to pay a gate fee for the feedstock.

Thus, the incinerator will become a white elephant. The operators will not worry, because they are guaranteed not to lose money in the operation. Again, I invite DCC members to open debate on this. We will not charge for the advice we will give that can be of benefit to Dublin residents, and to those in any urban area for which incineration is being considered.

Yours, etc,

Dr MICHAEL HB HAYES

MRIA, Research Professor,

Carbolea Group,

CES Department,

University of Limerick.

Poolbeg Incinerator Could Cost 100,000 man-years of life it its first 15 years

An Incinerator at Poolbeg could
cost 100,000 man-years of life
it its first 15 years (a).

An incinerator can be modelled as a deadly particles generator.

A 70 page PDF report from a credible medical society on the reduced life expectancy caused by incineration and deadly particles(b) is here so you make your own judgments.

Pollution in east Dublin already exceeds the compromised EU standards and is significantly above the more protective US air quality standards. The Bord Pleanala Inspector’s report noted the compromised level of air pollution in Poolbeg is already at or above the EU norms but his actions will have been dictated by the politically appointed directors at Bord Pleanala.

The submission to the EPA Oral Hearing by a member of the St Patrick’s rowing club in Ringsend illustrates concerns on cancer, ill health and premature deaths in a polluted environment. DCC refuses to run a Baseline Health Study for the area and cynically washes its hands by referring all such requests to the less than inspiring Health Service Executive (where nobody washes hands). The EPA Oral Hearing apparently accepted this Big Lie manouver.

The EPA’s directors are political appointees of Fianna Fail - at the EPA it would appear the gamekeepers have turned into poachers, and vice versa. Is the politically dominated EPA any more credible than the Developer’s Anglo-Irish Bank, the Dublin Developer’s Autocracy (DDDA) or the Developer’s Irish Financial Regulator?

In addition to invisible microscopic particles an incinerator in Dublin Bay would pump hundreds of thousands of tonnes of pollution into the air over Dublin each year. The total volume of waste is actually increased by waste-to-toxins incineration and is not reduced as claimed by industry Big Lies. For example, each tonne of waste generates an additional tonne of CO2. This CO2 is pumped up the chimney where it circles the world.

Big Lie Caution: Dublin City Council has spent €19,000,000 to promote its cynical one-sided case for an Incinerator at Poolbeg. DCC has used multiple Big Lies, including the Big Lie of selective witholding of data, it seems. For instance, DCC has apparently not publicly costed nor quantified the serious health impacts in terms of compromised health and premature deaths – apart from spin such as ‘you can not prove that’. This is the Tobacco Industry Big Lie in practice.

The Cork Harbour Alliance for a Safe Environment (CHASE) has other useful information. The Green-Fianna-Fail government has penalised Corks’ citizens by presenting CHASE with a legal bill of €50,000. Contrast this to the €19,000,000 of your money given to the public service patriots in developer-lead Dublin City Council. George Bush would say the DCC fokes are Fair & Balanced.

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June 2008 Estimates by British Society for Ecological Medicine using World Health Organisation Air Quality Guidelines
a) Based on a very conservative estimate of the level of increase that would be expected around large incinerators in a population of 250,000.

There is a reduction of life expectancy of 1.1 years for each 10μg per cubic metre increase in PM2.5 particulates

The US National Ambient Air Quality Standard for PM 2.5 particulates was introduced into the USA in 1997 with a mean annual limit of 15μg per cubic metre. This had measurable health benefits.

b) Deadly particles – see pages 15-16.

Incinerator and IGB Spin by Paid-For Consultant

What will N.Brennan do about Arup’s cross-directorship with the Developers Autocracy?

A cosmetic resignation from DDDA or Ulster Bank does not suffice to disable the perception of an old-boy network nor the damage to international perceptions.

• N. O’Sullivan is a director of Arup.
• N. O’Sullivan is a director of the DDDA.
• Arup claims DDDA’s glass bottle site is fit for humans.

How will N.Brennan educate the taxpayers about perceptions of DDDA credibiity or of Arup’s “independence” now Arup is paid to pronounce on pollution at speculators’ sites in Poolbeg?

Paid-for Arup Spin on €450 Million Ringsend Glass Bottle Site
Outstanding spin from Arup seems to claim the Ringsend Glass Bottle site lands are in “a satisfactory state” and that space created under(!) car-parking spaces and other services would “create a wide and ventilated physical barrier between polluted lands and the future habitable spaces of the new development“.

Unpaid Expert Opinion
Former EPA expert Malcolm Doak warned that 30 per cent methane gas levels exist on the lands and that “a significant gas risk still remains on-site”.

Paid-for Arup Spin on €350 Million Poolbeg Incinerator
Arup said the environmental impact statement found the Poolbeg waste-to-toxins incinerator would not significantly impact the environment and “no residual negative impacts are anticipated” from the construction or operation of the plant.

Unpaid Expert Opinion
Prof Staines, a medical doctor and academic, said it was “at best careless, and more realistically reckless, to proceed with a major development without considering methods of minimising harm and maximising benefits to the local community” and said the execution of a Health Impact Statement on such projects was common practice internationally.

In relation to the environmental impact statement, undertaken by Arup Consulting Engineers on behalf of the council, Prof Staines claimed that “in no case is there any serious consideration of the actual impacts of the estimated emissions on people in the local community or on human health”.

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DDDDA has been a poster boy for rampant multi-dimensional conflicts-of-interest. Ex: Seanie and Lar at the Glass Bottle site.

DDDA’s newest chairman, N.Brennan, is spun as a governance expert by advertising dependent newspapers. N.Brennan was appointed by Mr J Gormley in a closed-door recruitment process. N.Brennan was a director for Ulster bank when it financed Zoe Developments large Fabrizia site on Sandymount Strand (Zoe now has a negative net value of -€900,000,000, plus or minus an acre of occupied public footpath).

How can Arup not anticipate any negative impacts given operator Covanta’s curious record?

The Seanie & Lar culture at DDDA-Anglo was the catalyst for the €490,000,000,000 banker bailout and the proving ground for NAMA’s €90,000,000,000 developer bailout. Is there any pattern which shows the rampant multi-dimensional conflicts of interest at the €450,000,000 Glass Bottle site will not be repeated at NAMA?

• Both NAMA and DDDA combine closed-door autocratic control over planning permits.
• Both NAMA and DDDA have the same executive sponsors – the Galway Tent cartel.
• NAMA adds closed-door political distortion of property markets for the next 30 years (in violation of core EU Competition Principles).

See also: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0801/1224251858397.html

Poolbeg Incinerator "Rogue Employer"

The USA’s National Labor Relations Board this week issued a comprehensive complaint charging Covanta Energy Corp. and all of its U.S. subsidiaries with violating federal labor law.

http://blog.aflcio.org/2009/07/01/covanta-complaint-shows-need-for-employee-free-choice-act/

AFL-CIO Local 369 President Gary Sullivan:

The board’s action confirms our first-hand experience that Covanta is a rogue employer with no respect for the rights of its employees.

Dublin City Council has a secret deal with Covanta to run the proposed Poolbeg Waste-to-Toxins incinerator. Possibly to dodge US courts the deal is with an offshore Covanta outfit – a special purpose entity firewalled in secretive Luxembourg (guess why).

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The USA’s National Labor Relations Board is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1935 to administer the National Labor Relations Act, the primary law governing relations between unions and employers in the private sector.

Incinerators Nanoparticles are safe. Trust Us.

Tiny particles from incinerators will reduce your life by up to two years.

Nobody understands the science. That’s why we have Fianna Fail.

You can trust your clever politicians to protect you by directing their political appointees, dressed up as scientists, at EPA, Bord Pleanala, and elsewhere.
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http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0610/1224248531633.html

Expert challenges risk study for incinerator

LOUISE ROSEINGRAVE

Wed, Jun 10, 2009

TOXICOLOGICAL EFFECTS of nano-particles such as those produced from an incinerator stack can be responsible for exacerbating human health problems including asthma, bronchitis and heart disease, according to a scientific expert who gave evidence on behalf of objectors at a public hearing yesterday.

Prof C Vyvyan Howard described Indaver Ireland’s risk assessment of possible health problems associated with a proposed toxic waste incinerator at Ringaskiddy in Cork as “simplistic” and “fundamentally flawed”.

His claims were disputed by Indaver Ireland. Prof Howard, who is in charge of of bioimaging at the University of Ulster, has written and spoken in a variety of forums to draw attention to the threat posed by pollutants to developing foetuses and infants.

Speaking on behalf of anti-incinerator campaign group Cork Harbour Alliance for a Safe Environment at a hearing on the proposed incinerator yesterday, Prof Howard, described as a medically qualified toxico-pathologist, claimed there were airborne particles for which there was no known safe level, and that Indaver Ireland’s risk assessment did not cover the emittance of such particles. “The risk assessment in relation to particles that has been undertaken by Indaver is rather simplistic and appears to ignore the very significant contribution made to particulate burdens made by sulphur dioxide and especially nitrous oxide emissions.”

Prof Howard said while effects of individual toxins were known, the effects of multiple toxins in the air was unknown, and research into such effects was difficult.

Indaver Ireland’s risk assessment is based on the effects of individual toxins as per Environmental Protection Agency air quality standards.

“This approach is fundamentally flawed for those emissions like particles, for which no safe level can be demonstrated,” Prof Howard said.

Air pollution levels well within legal limits were killing people, he claimed, “especially older people and those with chronic heart and lung ailments”. Children and foetuses were particularly at risk from airborne pollutant particles, as their immune system and lungs were not fully developed, he said.

“There can be no doubt that children and even the foetus are particularly vulnerable to particle air pollutants, while this has been largely overlooked in setting current standards and controls,” he said.

He cited a review by scientists Joachim Heinrich and Remy Slama showing fine particle pollutants had been associated with infant mortality, impaired lung function and, less consistently, with sudden infant death syndrome.

In his report, Prof Howard claimed Indaver had “completely omitted any consideration of secondary particles and their impacts from their assessments”, which he said can account for a major fraction of the particles emitted by incinerators, despite filtration.

It was claimed that a high proportion of ultra-fine particles emitted through the incineration process evaded filtration systems.

“The subsequent direct uptake of these respirable particles and the ready transfer from the lungs into the bloodstream may be part of the reason that traditional toxicology is at a loss to explain the level of impacts for such apparently low exposures,” he said.

An Indaver Ireland spokesman said Prof Howard’s opinion was “at odds” with views of the World Health Organisation, EU and EPA. “Dioxins are all around us every day. Traffic, home heating and agriculture are among the main dioxin contributors. WHO and EU set safe level limits for dioxin emissions, and expert analysis has shown that the proposed development will have a minuscule effect,” the spokesman said.

The hearing is expected to continue until the end of next week.

© 2009 The Irish Times

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NAMA To Rescue Uneconomic Incinerator?

Perhap’s Ireland’s National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) can pitch in some of our €90,000,000,000 to help out Covanta, along with the €450 Million NAMA will burn to rescue the IGB speculators down the road in Poolbeg.

Green-FF states the incinerator is now uneconomic – as promised by John The Traitor Gormley. So no doubt Green-FF will next claim NAMA must save the ‘uneconomic’ waste-to-toxins incinerator. Fair is fair.

Six Degrees of Separation Or Less, at Poolbeg

€450,000,000

€90,000,000,000
€400,000,000,000
A Colony Again.

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DDDA Friends In Anglo Irish Manipulated Deposits?

DDDA – Dublin Developers Autocracy

Did the director friends of Dublin Developers Autocracy in Anglo Irish manipulate deposits?

The DDDA should be shut done – the Five Thousand Million Euro which DDDA plans to spend on concrete at Poolbeg should instead be used to build a sustainable culture of 21st century innovation.

• Anglo Irish Bank seems to have been the bank inside The Galway Tent pyramid scheme.
• The Dublin Developers Autocracy (DDDA) is curiously linked to Anglo-Irish in a manner which does not inspire confidence – the inbred directors’ relationships are a severe challenge to ethics.
• The Dublin Developers Autocracy is apparently running a sham “public consultation” before it dictates planning permissions in Poolbeg to the benefit of Anglo-related property developers.

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Regulator to probe Anglo’s deposit history
By Brendan Keenan

Monday February 09 2009

THERE will be intense scrutiny of figures for deposits at Anglo-Irish Bank when the nationalised lender publishes its annual results later this month, following reports that the Financial Regulator is examining whether previous year-end figures were artificially boosted by short-term inflows of deposits to coincide with the annual results.

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Full article is posted as the first comment.

Explanation of DDDA and DCC Incinerator Promotor’s Methodology in Ringsend/Poolbeg: Community Participation in Regeneration and Development, Andrew MacLaran, The Centre for Urban & Regional Studies, Head of Geography, School of Natural Sciences, TCD.
http://www.cpa.ie/research/seminars/presentations/2008-11-04_AndrewMacLaran.pdf
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Dublin Docklands Authority, Anglo Irish Bank,

Poolbeg Incinerator – Organisational Deception

“Naked deception is perfectly legal in Ireland”

Ireland’s legal system, from the point of view of an honest discussion on incineration, is a threat. Ireland’s legal system, from the point of view of international investors, is a joke.

The promoters of the Poolbeg Incinerator seem to be steeped in Ireland’s culture of legal deception. Postulated examples of this are here (a). This deception may cause one hundred thousand man-years of reduced life expectancy. There is no way to be sure as the promoters seem to be curious as regards to protecting the public interest.

An explanation of Ireland’s culture of deception is here: Credibility shredded by mess of Anglo Irish. In January 2009 The Financial Times called Ireland a banana republic. The description in 2005 by the New York Times of Dublin as “the Wild West of European finance” was widely revived. The full text is posted in the first comment to this blog posting.

Submission to Bord Pleanala Oral Hearing
Poolbeg Incinerator – April 2007.

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(a) Check all facts yourself and then form your own opinion.

Dublin Bay Incinerator, Dublin City Council, Poolbeg Incinerator, The Big Lie
The Big Lie, Dublin City Council, Dublin Bay Incinerator, Poolbeg Incinerator,

Big Lie Technique – Property Report – Fianna Fail Connection to CBRE

Did DCC Mislead The Oral Hearing (Poolbeg Incinerator)?

CBRE presented evidence to the Bord Pleanala Oral Hearing in April 2007. CBRE was paid to present this evidence – a property report- by the promoters of the Poolbeg Incinerator. It appears to be a fairytale, consistent with Big Lie spin:

1. Hard facts are missing,
2. DCC obstructs access to data,
3. CBRE’s charts are highly misleading (as a professional researcher would know).

In August 2008 Senator Shane Ross reported (see blue text below) a significant link between CBRE and Fianna Fail. This begs the question: Is CBRE also a member of the Galway Tent? Feel free to email any insights or corrections to galwaytent@gmail.com

CBRE And Fianna Fail

- Peter Malone chairs property company, CBRE Gunne.

CBRE Chairman Peter Malone ticks a few appropriate boxes. He is a well-known hotelier — not an engineer — and was the boss of Jurys; but Peter is also a favourite of politicians. Apart from being parachuted into the NRA chair by ministerial patronage, he has served as chairman of semi-state Bord na Mona, was a member of the review body on higher public sector remuneration and chairs property company, CBRE Gunne.

What is interesting about CBRE Gunne is that they gave Fianna Fail generous donations in 2004 and 2005. The NRA annual report tells you none of this.

Read more at “M50 directors unmasked” by Shane Ross, Sunday August 31 2008

Higher Public Sector Remuneration Review

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2)
Phoenix Magazine comments challenge the credibility of the CBRE researcher – the professional who presented the property report under direction of the incinertor promoters.

” .. the players who peddled the property guff for so long – the banks, developers and estate agents – are in shock. At this point a special mention must go to the likes of Marie Hunt of CBRE … “

The Phoenix Magazine, Annual 2008, page 138.

The Big Lie, Dublin City Council, Dublin Bay Incinerator, Poolbeg Incinerator,