Hodson Bay: Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE) have queried Roscommon County Council's decision to proceed with plans for an aquatic centre at Hodson Bay, north of Athlone, in the absence of an environmental impact statement (EIS).
A spokesman for the organisation told The Irish Times the proposed development, which includes a training school for boating activities, would have "a substantial adverse impact on the conservation status of Lough Ree".
The lake, a designated Special Area of Conservation, was already under development pressure and he said the impact of the latest proposal, together with a planned marina, "must be subject to a full assessment" in line with EU directives.
The proposed development at Hodson Bay includes an aquarium, restaurant, shop and other facilities, and a separate single-storey boat training centre with teaching rooms, changing and shower facilities, canteen, boat repair workshop and stores.
Roscommon County Council is acting as developer in a public-private partnership with Mr Stuart McNamara, who runs the Lough Ree power-boat school. This operates from a lakeshore site on the public car-park adjoining the Hodson Bay Hotel.
A planning application for the proposed development has been made in the name of Ms Rita McNulty, the council's community and enterprise director.
Without an EIS, there would be no appeal against a decision to grant permission for the scheme.
FIE has said this would infringe the EU Habitats and Birds directives and it has warned the council that if it proceeds in this manner, "FIE will have no other option but to seek the intervention of the EU Environment Directorate's legal affairs division".
The proposal has also drawn a hostile reaction from the Hodson Bay Residents Association, which fears that the boat-training school would lead to an intensification in the use of speedboats on Lough Ree, disrupting its relative tranquility.
"In the last few years, we've been tormented by jet-skiers on the lake," one of the residents said.
However, he conceded that Mr McNamara, who runs weekend courses in power-boat driving, operates less-noisy dinghies with four-stroke engines.
The aquatic centre and boat-training school are earmarked for a strip of public amenity land north of the Hodson Bay Hotel. The hotel, which incorporates the one-time family home of the late Brian Lenihan, was developed about 10 years ago.
At the time, a large public car-park was laid out beside it by the county council.
A sewage treatment plant was also built, but has not worked satisfactorily. Plans to upgrade it form part of the latest scheme, which qualifies for Bord Fáilte funding.
Meanwhile, dredging work for a 32-berth Waterways Ireland marina at Ballyleague on Lough Ree was halted last week after FIE complained that it would disrupt the fish spawning season, contrary to the terms of its planning permission.
Waterways Ireland has written to the Shannon Regional Fisheries Board asking it to clarify precisely when the spawning season begins and ends, in the hope that dredging work could be resumed on the €2 million marina development.
FIE unsuccessfully appealed against Roscommon County Council's decision to approve the marina in 2001 and subsequently made a formal complaint to the EU Commission, as the site is protected by the EU Habitats and Birds directives.
FIE accused the county council of "turning a blind eye to its European obligations" while Dúchas, the Heritage Service, had "declined to accept that recreational activities inevitably erode the conservation status of these legally protected areas".
