Over 153 separate written objections to the proposal have been submitted to the council by local residents concerned that excavation work involving the use of explosives could fracture the Dublin-Galway natural gas pipeline which passes underground through the site.

"This is Ballinaboy all over again, " says residents' spokesman Kieran Cummins.

"Except in Mayo nobody is planning to set off explosions.

This is a totally unacceptable proposal. This isn't some peripheral pipe we're talking about. It's the main East-West interconnector. Any damage to it could have catastrophic consequences."

The lives of hundreds of residents will be under threat, he claims, if the quarry development goes ahead. "It's an intolerable situation. We used a pedometer to measure the distance to the local primary school. It's 419 metres."

The pipe, 30 inches in diameter and buried 1.2 metres underground, is manufactured from high-grade steel. Measuring 320 km, it was laid from east to the west across seven counties during 2003 and 2004. The pipe was laid in sections and fabricated in situ.

Locals are particularly incensed at a proposal contained in the Environmental Impact Statement submitted with the planning application that "trial blasts will be carried out by Bord Gais personnel to assess any potential impact on the gas main".

Bord Gais has a statutory obligation to maintain the integrity of the pipeline. A way-leave 14 metres wide extends along the pipe's route and no construction work is legally permissible within that area. Any excavation work planned can only take place in consultation with the Bord.

"If, in the future, there is blasting planned at the site, we would liaise with the company and monitor any activity of that nature taking place, " a spokesperson for Bord Gais said. "It's a steel pipe. It's fairly sturdy. We might opt to reinforce it with extra slabbing if that was deemed necessary."

The quarry site contains valuable limestone deposits calculated at 3.9 million tonnes. Locals claim excavating that amount of rock would significantly lower the water table in a remote area of county Meath where most householders are reliant on their own privately owned wells for drinking supplies.

"When a quarry is blasted out, they're actually blasting into the water table. Here, they're talking about a dewatering requirement of 500 cubic metres per day . . . a lot of water, " Kieran Cummins says. "On top of that, 250 cubic metres per day will be drawn from a bored well to feed the concrete block facility. When we started organising ourselves and making enquiries we discovered some of the wells have already gone bone-dry. A neighbour of mine had to sink his well by an extra 90 ft last summer."

Other concerns voiced by residents include the likely negative visual impact on the environment . . . a proposed "batching tower" would be 15.2 metres high . . . the possible contamination of the local Trammon River, a subsidiary of the Boyne, and the dangers of an increase in respiratory illnesses brought on by raised levels of air-borne dust.

Local Fine Gael county councillor Billy Carey attended a recent meeting of Rathmolyon residents called to co-ordinate local opposition to the proposed development.

He says he is hopeful a compromise solution can be arrived at. "The state's mineral deposits have to be developed for the common good. And this is a huge deposit. It can't be left there.

Having said that, it can't be developed to the detriment of the local community. The concerns local residents have are valid and they will have to be addressed."

Keegan Quarries did not take up an invitation last week to respond to the residents' concerns.