25.02.2022
Bunahinly-Kilgarvan Bog comprises 394Ha in total.
Bord na Móna operates under IPC Licence issued and administered by the EPA to extract peat within the Blackwater bog group (Ref. P0502-01)
The Scheme will go beyond what is required to meet rehabilitation obligations under existing EPA IPC licence conditions.
Decommissioning seeks to address condition 10.1 of license Ref. PO502-01, which requires the following:
10.1 Following termination of use or involvement of all or part of the site in the licensed activity, the licensee shall:
10.1.1 Decommission, render safe or remove for disposal/recovery, any soil, subsoils, buildings, plant or equipment, or any waste, materials or substances or other matter contained therein or thereon, that may result in environmental pollution.
Decommissioning must take place at each bog prior to or concurrent with rehabilitation – the scale of decommissioning per bog varies dependant on the items/ infrastructure previously in place to facilitate prior peat extraction.
Rehabilitation seeks to address the requirements of Condition 10.2 of IPC License Ref. PO502-01, and is based on a reference document prepared by BNM per Bog for which the IPC license is applicable. See the following extract from IPC License Ref. PO502-01:
“The licensee shall prepare, to the satisfaction of the Agency, a fully detailed and costed plan for permanent rehabilitation of the cutaway boglands within the licensed area.”
Bunahinly-Kilgarvan Bog was drained and developed for industrial peat production in from the 1990’s. Industrial peat production ceased in 2018. The primary rehabilitation goal and outcome for Bunahinly-Kilgarvan Bog is environmental stabilisation of the bog.
Enhanced decommissioning as part of the PCAS will enhance the future after use of the bog for amenity value, security against access for illegal and unsocial activities and general State and community benefit.
The streams that flow through the site have been canalised
The total area of Bunahinly-Kilgarvan Bog is 394Ha of which 393.12ha or 99.78% of the present Landcover (2021) has been allocated enhanced rehabilitation measures.
Bunahinly-Kilgarvan has a pumped drainage regime
Bunahinly bog has three treated surface water outlets, two to the Shannon Upper tributary IE_SH_26S021800, and one direct to the Shannon (Upper)_120. Kilgarvan Bog also has three treated surface water outlets, two to the same Shannon (Upper)_120 tributary as Bunahinly Bog and the remaining one to the IE_SH_26B071200 BOOR_020 (Boor River)
Both the Shannon Upper tributary and the Boor River body are currently classified as At Risk and listed as being under pressure from peat extraction in the third cycle of the river basin management plan, currently under preparation.
Peat extraction through turbary occurs around the margins of Bloomhill Bog to the south and Mongan Bog to the south-west and at other locations within 15km.
Licensed turbary occurs at various locations within 15km of Bunahinly-Kilgarvan Bog, including several locations where the pathways for downstream in combination effects on European Sites may exist, primarily via drainage to EPA blue line watercourses to facilitate turbary. Unauthorised private turbary also occurs in discrete localised plots within the larger cutover raised bog complexes located to the south of Bunahinly-Kilgarvan Bog