An appeal is to be made to An Bord Pleanala over a decision by Donegal County Council to grant planning permission for an aeroplane painting plant beside the airport in Carrickfin.
The Braade/Carrickfin Conservation Group, which is to lodge the appeal, has described the council's decision as "insane" because the site is in a Special Area of Conservation.
Representatives of the group say they are not opposed to the airport but will oppose any moves to industrialise the seaside site in north-west Donegal.
A Swedish-owned company, trading as Avipaint Ireland (Aerpeint Teo) plans to strip, repaint and refurbish civilian and military aircraft at the plant. It was invited to locate at the site by the Donegal Airport company with the backing of Udaras na Gaeltachta, and has promised to create 30 to 60 jobs over a number of years.
The conservation group is opposed both to the nature of the plant and the fact that two large hangars are to be built on a sports field which has served as a public amenity for generations. An existing hangar will also be converted for use by Avipaint. The airport company has promised to provide a playing field at another location.
Campaigners say the hangars will be an ugly imposition on the landscape and the development will also cause the destruction of a square kilometre of machair grassland.
A spokesman for the group, Mr Michael Gillespie, says many local people are also worried that the development would cause pollution.
According to Avipaint, the plant will work on only two aircraft per week initially, but this will increase.
Planning permission was granted subject to 24 conditions which include restrictions on noise levels and emissions into the air. One of these states: "Storage, disposal and transport of hazardous wastes shall be in accordance with European Community Directives on waste." Mr Gillespie says this is too vague to reassure members of the group.
The managing director of Avipaint Ireland, Mr Roy Clevenholm, insists that there will be no "hazardous waste" from the paint stripping and repainting process. He says the stripping technique will involve dry blasting with a wheat-starch product and the waste product will be taken away in a sealed container for proper disposal.
Mr Clevenholm says the amount of solvents used in the repainting process will depend on the type of paint used but that it will be "way below" the yearly level of 12 tonnes which would necessitate a licence from the Environmental Protection Agency. He says Avipaint will give the EPA a full list of all the products it will use.
It is a condition of the planning permission that exhaust points on the hangars be fitted with a sampling point to monitor emissions and that emissions be monitored on a quarterly basis.
An Environmental Impact Study prepared by a consultant for the airport company says that the expected levels of atmospheric emissions from the plant will be "0.001 mg per cubic metre of stripped material, which will consist mostly of wheat starch and is 90 per cent biodegradable".
However, the conservation group says it has no confidence in the Environmental Impact Study. Mr Gillespie points out that it says that the expected waste from stripping one aircraft is 25 kg, while two paragraphs later, it says the waste from one aircraft would be between 50 and 100 kg. Mr Clevenholm told The Irish Times this week that there would be an average of 100 to 120 kg of waste from stripping each plane.
Mr Gerry Convie, the senior executive planner with Donegal County Council, said the decision to grant planning permission was not taken "easily or quickly". He said meetings had been held both with the objectors and local council members and that an Environmental Impact Study had been sought and 24 conditions had been imposed. "It was a hard call that the council had to make - to keep Carrickfin solely as a visual amenity, and we accept that it is a very beautiful area, or to permit something that might bring in some jobs. But it is not jobs at any cost. "If the council had not been able to allay fears about damage to the environment, it would not have decided to grant planning permission. We are confident that if the development takes place in accordance with the plans submitted and also under the conditions imposed, there will be no adverse impact on the environment," Mr Convie said.
The conservation group has been critical of the stance taken by local representatives but it has succeeded in having two questions raised in the Dail by Mr Alan Dukes and Mr John Gormley.
A question was put to the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera, by Mr Gormley on the legal protection in relation to industry wishing to develop plants in Special Areas of Conservation. In her reply, the Minister said that where the planning authorities were satisfied there were no alternative solutions, "planning permission may only be granted for imperative reasons of overriding public interest".
The campaigners say they will also follow EU channels in opposing the plant.