Fracking Firm IGas Refuses Further Investigation into Possible Site Contamination
An environmental expert has been stopped by fracking firm IGas and landowners Peel Holdings from further investigating possible chemical contamination at the company’s Barton Moss drilling plant, the Manchester Magistrates Court heard recently.
Dr Aiden Foley of EGG Consultants presented a report to the court showing “dangerously high” levels of contamination near the perimeter fence of the test drilling site in Eccles, Salford.
However, even though Foley’s report claims that the pollution was unlikely to have come from the drilling process and was probably from the equipment involved, he remains unable to obtain further evidence for his investigation.
Regardless of the pollutant’s origins, it is important that access is granted, as the contamination could spread to the wider local environment, the judge heard on 6 March.
Difficult Dilemma
But in an interesting turn of fate, IGas’s ban on entering the site could also result in many anti-fracking activists having cases against them dropped.
Foley was commissioned by Robert Lizar Solicitors to carry out his investigation in a wider effort to help defend some 60 anti-fracking protesters they are representing.
If Foley continues to be blocked from the site, the lawyer representing the protesters charged with aggravated trespass, argues that their cases should be thrown out as they would not be getting a fair trial.
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