Independent.ie (Dublin, Ireland), October 28, 2007

HOW A MOTHER'S LOVE IS AT HEART OF POWER STRUGGLE

[Rachel's introduction: "We got no answers," she said. "Our community is very angry over the health implications, the serious, serious health implications of the high-voltage power lines."]

Ann Murray divides her time between her job with Monaghan County Council and raising her three children in the sleepy village of Annyala, in the north of the border county. She involves herself in the day-to-day goings on of her community, welcomed the opening of a creche for pre-school children, and enjoys rearing her family in the peaceful countryside where she grew up.

Two weeks ago, this typical working mother took on an unexpected role as community activist. The spur was not the more usual issues that plague country communities, issues such as rural crime. It was her almost chance discovery that her rural hamlet fell right in the path of an 80-kilometre high-voltage crossborder electricity cable planned to run from Cavan, across Monaghan to Tyrone. A second power line in Meath would boost the supply to the densely populated north east.

In gestation for three years, and announced by energy ministers north and south last year, the cables would connect the Republic's supply to the North, bringing cheaper and more efficient electricity into Ireland.

Three weeks ago, the proposed routes for the cables were unveiled for the first time to the unsuspecting communities that will host them.

For a project that will have an impact on several hundred thousand households, the launch was remarkably low key. There was no leaflet drop or information campaign. Just advertisements in five local newspapers and an invitation to attend one of three public meetings -- one for each county. The three meetings were attended by no more than 500 people. They were told that the power lines are vital to Ireland's economic infrastructure.

The first Ann heard of it was from her sister two weeks ago, when she learnt that EirGrid, the operator of this line, was holding a public meeting for local residents. She went to the Glencarn Hotel in Castleblaney with a mental note of questions in her head. Cheaper electricity was fine but not if it meant exposing her children to health risks, having pylons blight her view and devalue her property.

She wanted to know where the pylons would be erected, how high they would be and what were the health effects.

"We got no answers," she said. "Our community is very angry over the health implications, the serious, serious health implications of the high-voltage power lines. There are hundreds and hundreds of people who will be affected. We have a school and a creche here and all three proposed routes will be in the townlands around us. Not alone are there health risks, but it will spoil the look of the place, and the value of our homes. Who wants to live in a house next to a pylon?"

Ann responded by setting up a public meeting of her own. She telephoned friends and neighbours to spread the word, booked a room in the CleverClogs creche, and organised tea and biscuits for afterwards. Almost 100 people crammed into the community hall last Monday night. Parents, teachers, farmers, young couples, pregnant women, many were hearing for the first time that pylons would be plotting a course in the townlands of Annyala and beyond. The only public representative was a Fine Gael councillor, Gary Carville.

It quickly became evident that many of those who crammed into the classroom felt that they had been caught on the hop.

"Was this debated in the Dail?" asked one man.

"Was this known about before the General Election?" asked another.

"We must stand united on this," said Councillor Carville.

Jim Lennon, a former high level civil servant who is involved in the anti-pylon protest against the North's section of power line, talked tactics.

"Organise yourselves into groups. Knock on every door. Tell people what is happening," he said. "We can delay them and we will delay them on technical issues. It does not stop it but it does put costs up."

The meeting in Annyala marks the start of what looks like being a long and divisive battle that could yet end in the courts. At its core is economic advancement over what communities such as Annyala claim are their human rights.

On the one hand, there is the efficient energy infrastructure which is vital to Ireland's economic development. The Celtic Tiger has drained Ireland's energy resources, particularly in the highly populated north east.

Ireland needs access to other energy supplies. To achieve this end, the governments north and south have launched the single electricity market which will start next month.

What it means for consumers is lower utility bills. Electricity suppliers will be able to trade electricity on the all-Ireland market and sell it at competitive prices to customers. British suppliers are already looking at entering the Irish market.

Facilitating all of this is EirGrid, the State body that builds the infrastructure that transmits the power.

The biggest project is the cross-border high-voltage power line undertaken with Northern Ireland Electricity. The €180m, 400 kv power line will run over 45 kilometres of land in the Republic, starting out at a proposed new sub-station in Kingscourt, Co Cavan, running across Monaghan and continuing for another 35 kilometres to Co Tyrone. The second is a 400 kv power line that will run from Woodland, near Dunboyne, Co Meath, and connect to Kingscourt. It will stretch across 58 kilometres of land, much of it heavily populated commuter belt towns. Both lines will run overhead, suspended by pylons along their respective routes.

The economic progress brings with it a downside -- the blight of pylons, fears that the homes traversed by the power lines will plummet in value, and more importantly to many, the disputed health risks.

EirGrid insisted this weekend that there are no health risks associated with the power lines. Its confident position is at odds with the broader scientific community which, at its most sceptical, has broadly acknowledged the possibility of health risks.

The World Health Organisation believes that there is only a possibility that electromagnetic fields may increase the risk of childhood leukemia but has dismissed links to other illnesses.

Other research, including a key Californian study, suggest the possible health risks are more widespread. They cite adult leukemia, adult brain cancer, Alzheimer's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, breast cancer, depression, certain types of heart disease, miscarriage and suicide.

A key British study -- the Draper report -- found that children living within 200 metres of a power line were 69 per cent more likely to develop leukaemia, and those living between 200 metres and 600 metres away had a 23 per cent increased risk.

Earlier this year, a British government advisory group charged with looking into the issue, reported that the best option for reducing childhood leukemia was to ban the building of homes and schools within 60 metres of power lines.

The group -- which included industry representatives, academics and health experts -- was so deeply divided on the health risks that they failed to agree any recommendations other than on advising people on how to manage the risk to electromagnetic exposure for themselves.

Denis Henshaw, a physics professor at Bristol University, was one of the contributors to that report.

"Unfortunately, this is a really adversarial area. But make no mistake. From my point of view, there are large numbers of health effects," he said. "No one wants to turn the lights out. I don't want to turn the lights out. But we are talking about a completely unregulated industry here," he said.

In Ireland, the Department of the Environment, which takes the World Health Organisation line on the debate, has responsibility for the health effects of electromagnetic fields, but no official body has been tasked with monitoring it. However, the Department is in the process of extending that role to the Radiological Protection Institute.

There is no international standard on the safe distance from electromagnetic fields.

In Ireland, there is nothing to prevent house-building right up to or even beneath a power line.

EirGrid said its "design aim" is to place the power lines within 50 metres of buildings, while those who attended one of its public meetings were told it would be 25 metres. A spokesman said the distance was not for public health reasons, but rather for visual and amenity reasons.

In the UK, the safe distance is now taken as the 60 metres suggested in the Sage report. In Sweden, it is 150 metres.

For the protesters, the answer is simple. They want the cables laid underground.

"When there is an issue like this and when you are not sure, and the preponderance of statistical evidence would suggest that there is a higher likelihood of risk, then you adopt a precautionary principle and you do more research," said Jim Lennon.

"Either you shield people from it, in terms of houses and property which would be prohibitively expensive, or alternatively you bury it.

"It is expensive but in a first world economy, how do the costs and benefits bear out on this. Who bears all the costs and gets the benefits?"

EirGrid claims the cost is prohibitive. It would be eight times more expensive to lay them underground -- about €1.4bn for the cross-border cable alone. There are technical considerations too. Repairs would take days rather than hours, EirGrid says.

John Fitzgerald, research professor at the Economic and Social Research Institute, agreed. "The inter-connector is very important in economic terms. It will make it less likely for the lights to go off, it will be cheaper for consumers and in the long run, there will be more efficient electricity, and a more secure supply," he said.

"The cost of putting the power lines underground would be likely to defeat the benefits of it, which could leave you with a less secure system."

It would appear that the onward march of the pylons is inevitable.

Because the power lines are part of the national infrastructure, the State can compulsorily purchase the land it needs from those who resist allowing the pylons on their property. Nor does the powerline go through the ordinary planning process. As a national infrastructure project, it will go straight to An Bord Pleanala.

EirGrid said it is engaging in extensive consultation with communities. The three public meetings already held are "the first of many". EirGrid will not decide which route the power lines will take until early 2008.

According to a spokesman, the affected communities will not get any advance notice. The route will be announced at the same time the planning application is submitted. Then, those who wish to, can make submissions through the planning process. The planning authority can expect to be inundated.

"We are going to be a united front. We are all going to stand together," said Ann Murray. "A mother is here to protect her children. Not alone our own children, but we have to protect everyone else's children too. The bottom line is if this is going our way, it is going underground."

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