The Sperrins: Mining, Power & Community in Northern Ireland

Day 49: Who Will Mind the Sperrins?
As the Dalradian goldmine public inquiry adjourns for three weeks, serious questions remain about toxic fugitive dust, environmental monitoring, enforcement and the absence of an emergency plan for communities downstream of the proposed mine waste facility.
Today also brought the exclusion of a community-led air quality survey and a final decision on the warning issued to Save Our Sperrins solicitor Mary Brolly.
After 49 days, the imbalance of power is becoming impossible to ignore. But the campaigners are far from defeated.
🎧 Listen to today's podcast and share it. The Sperrins deserve to be heard.
If you value thoughtful, commentary on the Inquiry, please consider following the podcast, sharing this episode, and joining our campaign mailing list to stay connected. https://dontmineus.com/newsletter/
SAVE OUR SPERRINS ( Social Media) 
https://linktr.ee/saveoursperrins
 

The Air We Breathe — And the Evidence We Don't Have
As Northern Ireland consults on plans to improve air quality, the Goldmine Public Inquiry continues to examine the dust emissions, heavy metals and air pollution associated with Dalradian's proposed mine in the Sperrins.
Today brought challenges to the applicant's modelling, disputes over scientific assumptions and further concerns about the adequacy of baseline air quality monitoring.
We also hear a powerful personal contribution from Hugh McCloy, whose experience as the father of a child diagnosed with leukaemia has reinforced his determination to see proper evidence collected before it is too late.
Listen to today's podcast and share it. The air we breathe is everyone's concern.
If you value thoughtful, commentary on the Inquiry, please consider following the podcast, sharing this episode, and joining our campaign mailing list to stay connected. https://dontmineus.com/newsletter/
SAVE OUR SPERRINS ( Social Media) 
https://linktr.ee/saveoursperrins

Ecology Finished by Lunchtime — But Were the Questions Answered?
An unexpectedly short day at the Dalradian Public Inquiry, but no shortage of controversy.
Missing evidence on bird collision risks, power lines with potentially decades of ecological disturbance ahead, and the extraordinary insertion of one little word  future — into planning conditions dealing with unauthorised development.
By 12.30, terrestrial ecology was finished. But the environmental concerns remain.
🎧 Listen to the latest episode and please share.
If you value thoughtful, commentary on the Inquiry, please consider following the podcast, sharing this episode, and joining our campaign mailing list to stay connected. https://dontmineus.com/newsletter/
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https://linktr.ee/saveoursperrins
 

When Wildlife Becomes an Inconvenience | Curraghinalt Public Inquiry
Badgers offered artificial homes and peanuts, hares displaced through habitat manipulation, and biodiversity calculations that turn a claimed gain into a disputed loss.
Today, we examine the extraordinary proposals to move wildlife out of the path of Dalradian's gold mine, and Conor Fagan's argument that when the environmental claims are stripped away, all that remains is economics.
🎧 Listen, share and help give the wildlife of the Sperrins a voice.
#SaveOurSperrins #ProtectOurWildlife #BiodiversityMatters #CurraghinaltInquiry
If you value thoughtful, commentary on the Inquiry, please consider following the podcast, sharing this episode, and joining our campaign mailing list to stay connected. https://dontmineus.com/newsletter/
SAVE OUR SPERRINS ( Social Media) 
https://linktr.ee/saveoursperrins

The Birds Could Be Going Anywhere — A Race to the Bottom of Environmental Standards?
Badgers, bats, birds and butterflies were under scrutiny at the Curraghinalt Public Inquiry, but so too was the Northern Ireland Environment Agency.
With ecological survey gaps challenged, further assessments proposed after consent, and an independent ecologist prevented from speaking directly, are we witnessing a race to the bottom of environmental standards?
🎧 Listen to the latest episode, share it and help us keep the spotlight on what's happening in the Sperrins.
#SaveOurSperrins #CurraghinaltInquiry #EnvironmentalProtection #Bats #Badgers #otters 

Today at the Curraghinalt Public Inquiry we got into the conditions that could one day govern water abstraction, discharges and monitoring at the proposed gold mine.
Missing figures, trigger levels without clear stop mechanisms, conditions being removed because they are deemed “not necessary”, updated modelling that won’t be available before the inquiry ends, and serious questions about scrutiny and transparency.
These conditions could govern impacts lasting long after the mine has closed.
🎧 Listen to today’s podcast and please share it. What happened in that inquiry room needs to be heard outside it.
If you value thoughtful, commentary on the Inquiry, please consider following the podcast, sharing this episode, and joining our campaign mailing list to stay connected. https://dontmineus.com/newsletter/
 
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Confidence, Goldilocks Drains and the Great Peat Shuffle
Today at the Curraghinalt Public Inquiry, confidence was in plentiful supply  until the discussion got into the practicalities of moving and restoring peat.
We look at Goldilocks drainage pipes, the ever-evolving peat management plan, questions over NIEA and “negotiation”, a lunchtime eviction from the dance studio, and an unexpected lecture on the precautionary principle.
🎧 Listen, share and follow the inquiry with us.
Save Our Sperrins — the public inquiry, from inside the room.
If you value thoughtful, commentary on the Inquiry, please consider following the podcast, sharing this episode, and joining our campaign mailing list to stay connected. https://dontmineus.com/newsletter/
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Today’s evidence began with serious concerns about the reverse osmosis plant and ended up exposing a much wider theme  just how much of this project still appears to depend on details being designed, tested, monitored or decided later.
From a “conceptual” closure plan and a “palette of options” for river crossings, to peat restoration, cumulative effects and the future capacity for local housing, today brought us back to one simple issue: how much should already be known before planning permission is granted?
As always, this podcast is intended to help people understand what happened at the Inquiry by bringing together the week's evidence in plain English.
If you find these updates useful, please consider joining the Sperrins community  campaign newsletter.
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Day 41 of the Curraghinalt Public Inquiry and another day dominated by water.
The Applicant brought forward a sizeable team of consultants to respond to the Loughs Agency on salmon, trout, pearl mussels, otters and water quality. But amid hours of detailed biology, the inquiry kept returning to more basic issues: unresolved receiving-water parameters, selenium, tellurium, discharge consents and what is actually known about the existing condition of these rivers.
Dr Steven Emerman also intervened on water-quality figures, algae and reduced river flows.
🎧 Listen to today’s podcast for our round-up of another extraordinary day at the Inquiry.
As always, this podcast is intended to help people understand what happened at the Inquiry by bringing together the week's evidence in plain English.
If you find these updates useful, please consider joining the Sperrins community  campaign newsletter.
https://dontmineus.com/newsletter/
SAVE OUR SPERRINS ( Social Media) 
https://linktr.ee/saveoursperrins

🎙️ Day 40 of the Curraghinalt Public Inquiry — and today it was all about water.
Private wells predicted to go dry, nitrate pollution lasting decades, questions over post-closure monitoring, and two groundwater monitoring points — GW05 and GW06 — that simply refuse to go away.
And through it all, the Commissioner kept asking some very straightforward questions, including one that may sum up the day:
“Should that not have been ironed out already?”
🎧 Listen to today’s podcast and please share it.
If you value thoughtful, commentary on the Inquiry, please consider following the podcast, sharing this episode, and joining our campaign mailing list to stay connected. https://dontmineus.com/newsletter/
SAVE OUR SPERRINS ( Social Media) 
https://linktr.ee/saveoursperrins