A Co Galway quarry whose blasts allegedly caused nearby homes to tremor must suspend quarrying operations while a legal action brought by locals is being considered by the High Court.
Mr Justice Richard Humphreys on Thursday ordered the operators of Killola Quarry in Rosscahill, Oughterard, to cease all unauthorised development, which, until further order, includes “all quarrying and associated activities at the site”.
The operators are also prohibited from allowing pollutants to be discharged into nearby drains and watercourses.
In making the orders, the judge said he considered the potential risk to the environment, which, as an imperative of national and European Union law, outweighs other considerations here.
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He was asked to make the orders by a group of local residents who said they were at their “wits’ end” due to an alleged recent intensification of the quarry’s operations.
The Oughterard-based Corrib Community Association claims the work is having “significant impact” on the local environment, the mental health of locals and the structural integrity of some of their properties.
The quarry’s owner, Michael Power, and operator, Noel Welby, deny the allegations, while Noel Welby Plant Hire Ltd, which was added as a defendant as part of the judge’s Thursday ruling, has not yet had a chance to rebut the claims in court.
The orders apply to Mr Power and Mr Welby while the residents’ case is ongoing or until further order. They have a more short-term effect on the plant hire firm, due to it having not been a party to the action until Thursday. The court will consider extending the order against that firm after it has been served with the injunction application.
The case was also brought against Killola Quarries Ltd, but the court heard this company has not operated the site since March 2019. The injunction application did not apply to it.
The Corrib Community Association’s director, engineer Tomás Doyle, who lives about 400m from the quarry, said in an affidavit that the quarry’s blasts have caused his whole house to “tremor”. He alleges the work often continues from 6am to 11pm, but it sometimes carries on past midnight.
It was clear, he said, that planning conditions for the site were not being complied with, including in relation to operating times, dust, noise and vibrations.
He claims the quarry has increased its operations to supply aggregate for the Moycullen bypass which is being constructed on behalf of Galway County Council – the agency tasked with enforcing planning and environmental law.
In September 2022, the council served Mr Power and Mr Welby with an enforcement notice over alleged unauthorised quarrying activity at Killola. This was overturned last July as a result of High Court proceedings brought by Mr Power.
At the hearing of the injunction application earlier this week, the local association’s senior counsel, Stephen Dodd, instructed by FP Logue solicitor Eoin Brady, said an “absolutely egregious breach of the planning acts” has occurred at the site. This is having a “severe impact on the community”, he said.
Lawyers for Mr Power and Mr Welby argued that the quarry benefits from certain planning exemptions for having existed prior to the enactment of the Local Government Act of 1963.
Mr Justice Humphreys refused their request to postpone the application or to direct that the case should be brought in the lower Circuit Court.
In his ruling on Thursday, the judge stressed that he was deciding the application for the pretrial injunctions and has not definitively dismissed the various points of domestic and European law made by Mr Power and Mr Welby, which will be determined after a full hearing.
He rejected, for the time being, an argument from the defence that An Bord Pleanála gave approval in 2015 for future quarrying works. The judge said the board made clear it was granting consent for “purely historic” operations and was not authorising future development at the site.
He was also not persuaded by submissions that there was a lack of urgency to the locals’ case due to the activities having allegedly been occurring for some time. The judge said the potential for future environmental damage injects urgency.
More difficult for the defence, he added, is that the “mere passage of time does not render lawful that which is not”.
The residents’ group has done “more than enough” to reach the standard for the orders to be granted at this stage.
Mr Justice Humphreys said he will give the case an early date for the substantive hearing, preferably in early next year.
