Oceanographer

A top, highly respected, Senior Oceanographer, Mike Quinnell, has looked  at the Hydrodynamic Modelling Study done for the Council by RPS and has insisted that their conclusion is quite simply wrong.

According to the RPS report for Donegal Council, the treated sewage would flow down the Foyle and out the mouth without any treated sewage flowing inland.

Great!

That’s what we want!

Wrong

However, Mike Quinnell says that this is simply wrong.

Indeed, he has thrown down a challenge to Donegal Council and RPS by saying that he is prepared to put his reputation on the line by asking that a third party should take a look at the data to see who is correct.

Surely that is something that is worth doing.

If RPS is right that’s fine. If they are wrong then Moville’s beaches are going to be hit by treated sewage and possibly by untreated sewage several times a year.

Neither Donegal Council nor RPS have responded to the challenge so far. One hopes they are seriously considering it.

Mike Quinnell has looked at the data and said that their conclusions are incorrect.

RPS

RPS have been involved in a case in Dublin at Doonbeg where a judge claimed that the figures were massaged. The judge said that Matt Twomey, the assistant Dublin City Manager in charge of waste policy knew that the figures were massaged.

According to GalwayTent Blogspot “Dublin City Council has spent more than €20 million on a paid-for RPS “expert planner” and for other paid-for consultants (total spent is €120 million on a white elephant, before any construction).  
They continued “An “ex” RPS employee is on the board of Bord Pleanala which is curious but not illegal in The Republic of Ireland.  EPA has “ex” incinerator business employees at Director level.
Massaged Reports

“What is RPS doing to the reputation of the Engineering Profession in Ireland by standing over cynically ‘massaged’ reports?  How can RPS-Ireland stake the international reputation of RPS on ‘massaged’ reports written not necessarily in the public interest? 

“Does it matter the reports are officially the work of Dublin Council?  RPS’s logo is all over the reports.  On TV, RPS has made curious remarks about the Judge but that of course is self-defence and not interference in the due process.”

Curious

This is getting curiouser and curiouser by the minute. Surely everyone would want to know definitively whether the treated (and sometimes raw) sewage will flow back into the beaches in Moville or whether they will flow out of the mouth of the Foyle.

Or is the result to be that the sewage treatment station MUST be built at Carnagarve and the facts will have to fit that conclusion as at Doonbeg? Many people in the area are starting to wonder if this is the case? One waits to hear what the Council will say about Quinnell’s challenge.