The power of mussels

Protected mollusc could block plan to build €600m ring road for Galway

THE possible presence of a protected species of freshwater mussel could have a major impact on the construction of a €600million ring road for Galway.

Ruth Molloy, environmental campaigner and member of the Galway Athletics Board, yesterday told An Bord Pleanála’s hearing into the project that a number of possible sightings of Margaritifera freshwater pearl mussels have been recorded in Lough Corrib.

This mollusc is a protected species and has been at the centre of a number of large-scale planning disputes in recent years.

The project team behind the N6 Galway City Ring Road confirmed no survey to determine the presence of the pearl mussel had been conducted in the Corrib as part of the project’s Environmental Impact Assessment Report (EIAR).

Ms Molloy said: ‘Along this stretch of the river I have personally seen juvenile freshwater mussels, most likely Margaritifera, embedded in the bank [of Lough Corrib]. Yet we see in the EIAR the River Corrib and east of the River Corrib were not assessed [for the presence of pearl mussels].

‘This means the sections of the river which will be most affected by this development have not been checked for the presence of Margaritifera. This highlights the deficiencies in the EIAR.’

Project ecologist Aebhín Cawley said assessments had been carried out on other waterways affected by the plan, but not Lough Corrib itself. She said this decision was taken after advice from Dr Evelyn Moorkens, one of Ireland’s leading experts on protected mussels.

‘It is likely that the species that Ms Molloy referred to were other species of mussels in the Corrib,’ Ms Cawley concluded.

Ms Molloy called for an independent study to be carried out to determine if pearl mussels exist in the affected section of the Corrib.

‘There should be a survey and if there is found to be a presence of these mussels, that will have a big impact on this project,’ she said.

‘It is in the interests of the people who build the bridge that there is nothing there. There needs to be an independent survey. That to me is a no-brainer.’

Ms Molloy, who says she swims regularly in Lough Corrib, claims structures similar to the proposed ring road have already had a devastating impact.

‘The section of the river either side of the Quincentenary Bridge is dead – filled with silted concrete and no life,’ she said.