Sunday, April 22, 2007

(04-22) 04:00 PDT Rossport, Ireland -- Willie Corduff is a quiet man who
hates arguments. But when Shell E&P Ireland said it would build a $1.1
billion pipeline and refinery near his front yard in this small Irish
village in County Mayo, the father of six fought back.

The 52-year-old farmer rallied his neighbors, spent three months in jail
for
denying the oil company access to his land and eventually halted the
largest
energy project in Irish history while raising the question on a national
scale about economic development versus community consent and
environmental
concerns.

"I am not trying to cause problems or get publicity. In fact it is the
opposite," said Corduff, who has been awarded the 2007 Goldman
Environmental
Prize for Europe for leading the anti-pipeline battle. "All I want is to
stay where I am. ... My heart and soul are in this place."

When Corduff's parents arrived in Rossport in 1947, the region's
wetlands --
known as bogs -- had to be reclaimed painstakingly by hand. Today, there
are
just a few farms dotting the vast, landscape of barren bogs and no
industries or pollution. An estuary in front of Corduff's farm leads into
Broadhaven Bay, a breeding ground of whales and dolphins.

But the discovery in 1996 of a huge gas field 50 miles off the Mullet
Peninsula on the Atlantic coast threatens to change the rural landscape.
Shell E&P Ireland, in partnership with Statoil Exploration (Norway's
state
energy company) and Ireland's Marathon International Petroleum, plans to
develop the field to supply 60 percent of Ireland's natural gas.

The Corrib consortium, as the partnership is known, wanted to start
production in 2003, bringing untreated gas ashore at Broadhaven Bay
through
a pipeline stretching 6 miles across Rossport, the small farming
community
where the Corduffs and some 150 others reside, to a nearby refinery in
Bellanaboy.

To attract further investment, the government turned over all rights to
the
Corrib gas field to Shell and its partners, agreeing to receive no tax
dollars in return.

While the gas field could earn Shell and its partners in excess of $60
billion in the project's estimated 20-year lifetime, Rossport would
receive
no royalties and its residents would have to pay full market price for
gas.
According to Shell Oil's Web site, the project would have generated
employment for 700 during construction phase, but only 50 long-term jobs.

The Corduffs also discovered the pipeline the consortium planned to run
through their village wasn't the typical low-pressure line that traverses
other communities. Instead, it would carry raw, untreated gas at rates of
pressure five times the standard measure, unprecedented levels in a
populated area -- and just 230 feet from their home.

"How can we go to bed at night knowing that there is a pipeline full of
raw
gas down the road?" asked Mary Corduff. "We know it isn't meant to
rupture,
but accidents do happen. We'd worry at the slightest noise."

The Corduffs were also concerned about the proposed refinery being built
on
top of 30 feet of delicate bog ecosystem with a history of landslides,
and
whether emissions of radon gas, lead, nickel, mercury and other refinery
toxins would affect nearby Carrowmore Lake, the primary source of water
for
the region's 10,000 residents.

But the consortium argued that the project was safe and that an offshore
terminal would be too expensive and dangerous because of rough winter
seas.
The government backed that position, allowing Corrib to lay pipeline
across
the property of more than two-dozen Rossport farmers and landowners.

The deal violated European Union environmental laws requiring local
participation and review, according to Shell to Sea, the grassroots
campaign
begun by the Corduffs and others. It represented the first time in Irish
history that a government had compelled the sale of property to a private
company in an arrangement called Compulsory Acquisition Order, which
allows
the use of land on private property when the public interest is at stake
and
suitable land cannot be acquired by agreement.

"Our government sold us out. We felt isolated and desperate. No one was
paying attention to our demands," Willie Corduff recalled.

He and four neighbors then refused to allow consortium workers access to
their lands. In June 2005, Shell obtained a court injunction against
them.
All were imprisoned in Dublin for 94 days for contempt of court.

"We had always respected the law ... until this," said Willie Corduff. "I
had
always felt that there was somebody out there to protect us, that if you
did
the right thing, you would get justice, but no. This was a terrible
blow."

But their incarceration marked a turning point. Previously, the plight of
Mayo families defending their land was given little publicity, but
suddenly
the faces of the five men were everywhere on the news as the Rossport
Five.
Soon there were rallies of support across the country and protesters
picketed Shell gas stations.

In Rossport, "Shell Out" signs sprouted along roads, and opponents of the
project set up round-the-clock blockades at the refinery site and built a
campsite dubbed the "Rossport Solidarity Camp." Most important, Shell to
Sea
has grown from a local environmental campaign to a national movement
focused
on the rights of local communities.

Owens Wiwa, brother of Nigerian writer Ken Saro-Wiwa -- a past Goldman
Prize
winner who was executed in 1995 by the Nigerian government for opposing
Shell's operations in that African nation -- visited the five activists
in
jail, calling their plight "a classic David and Goliath story."

In August, the consortium suspended groundwork at the terminal site,
agreeing
to find an alternative route for the pipeline "within the vicinity of
Rossport" and limit pipeline pressure to just twice the standard measure.
In
October, 150 police officers were sent to allow the company to resume
work
on the terminal.

And on Wednesday, a High Court in Dublin ruled that the Compulsory
Acquisition Orders against the five landowners have to be dropped --
effectively making it impossible for the consortium to continue with its
original pipeline route.

Now a government hearing board is studying the environmental impact of the
Bellanaboy refinery with a decision expected in a few weeks. Louise
McMahon,
a Shell spokeswoman in Dublin, said the hearing is a chance for the
consortium to correct what it describes as "misrepresentations" of facts.
"It is an opportunity for people to express their views and concerns in
an
open and transparent forum and the Corrib Gas Partners welcome it."

The Corduffs' seven-year crusade has been most difficult on their
children,
especially on the youngest daughter.

"Shell has taken my parents away from us. They go to meetings at night and
protest every morning," said Marie Corduff, who was just 11 when the gas
project was launched. "But there is too much at stake, so they'll
continue."
Online resources

For more information, visit:

shelltosea.com

corribgas.com.

Contact us at insight@sfchronicle.com.

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