Concerns over Advantica report

SIR - A full bore rupture on a 20” pipeline at the reduced maximum pressure of 144 bar (down from the current 345 bar worst case scenario) would have the following impact on houses and people: - any house within 80 metres will be burned; - any house up to 166 metres could be burned; - any person within 57 metres will be killed; - any person up to 203 metres could be killed.
Advantica will only stand by their calculations up to 120 bar (short of the maximum proposed) and the above estimates are based on one experiment conducted at just 60 bar.
Most permanently inhabited houses in Rossport are barely 70 metres from the pipeline, and anyone travelling the road will be from 30 metres down to 1.2 metres from the pipeline at any given time!
Compare these figures to gas distribution pipes in urban areas. The maximum pressure in a typical half inch domestic gas pipe is 5 bar, and in the event of a leak all buildings within 500 metres are evacuated.
Current Minister for Natural Resources Noel Dempsey publicly stated on May 3, 2006, that any person 3 metres from a 144 bar gas pipeline would be perfectly safe in the case of an explosion.
In August, 2000, a pipeline ruptured in Carlsbad, New Mexico, incinerating an unfortunate family of twelve camping 230 metres away, and fire services could not get within 1.2 kilometres (1200 metres) because of the intense radiated heat. The pressure was 46 bar.
The latest safety review commissioned by Noel Dempsey proves the proposed pipeline to be uniquely dangerous … but hiding behind the spin of Shell and their government partners, he is willing to take the risk.
The people of Erris are not.
Yours sincerely,
John Monaghan Rossport, Co Mayo.