€600m plan to pump Shannon water to capital opposed

OPPONENTS OF Dublin City Council’ proposals to source hundreds of millions of litres of water per day from the Shannon vowed they would take their opposition to the project to the European Commission at a public meeting in Dromineer, Co Tipperary last night.

At the meeting which marked the end of initial public consultation on the water abstraction plan, RPS Consulting Engineers confirmed that seven of the 10 options to supply Dublin with water into the future, involve water abstraction from the Shannon and its lakes.

But members of the Shannon Protection Alliance, a group which claims support of more then 100,000 people who live, work and enjoy the Shannon region expressed concern for the continuance of navigation along the river, the maintenance of fish stocks and the impact on tourism. Also among the concerns raised were risks to the Ardnacrusha hydroelectric plant at Limerick, wildlife, lake recreation and local drinking water supplies.

Concern was also raised about issues of “water rights”, and the potential for legal conflict, as happened, the alliance has claimed, in the case of the Colorado river in the USA, during periods of drought.

Speakers opposed to the €600 million scheme, said they were seeking advice from the European Commission to ascertain if any water directives were being infringed and would, if the scheme went ahead, take a case to the European Court if necessary.

However, Gerry Geoghegan of RPS Consulting Engineers maintained the scheme can be compatible with the aims of different Shannon users, and he said that any proposal accepted by Dublin City Council and subsequently approved by the Minister for Environment, would also be subject to the planning laws and a water abstraction licence.

But Mr Geoghegan acknowledged that in the event of low flows following abstraction, the ESB may have to be compensated for the resultant lack of generation potential.

RPS has been retained to report on the options by Dublin City Council and Mr Geoghegan told The Irish Times he expected the report to be ready by this May.

He told last night’s meeting that an emerging option would be to take water from the Shannon in winter, when high levels were frequently a problem, and pump it to two new lakes to be created on cut-away bogs, one near Rochfortbridge, Co Westmeath, and the other near Portarlington, Co Laois, before piping it on to Dublin on a year-round basis.

Currently the Dublin region uses about 560 million litres per day which by 2016 will have risen to 630 million litres and by 2031 to 800 million litres.

However, in order to ensure continuity of supply the council said it needs an extra 300 million litres in addition to what is provided by its existing water sources.

Irish Times

www.buckplanning.ie

Dublin council to pursue Shannon as water source

DUBLIN CITY Council has said it will continue to hold briefings in relation to its controversial scheme to extract drinking water from the River Shannon, despite an angry reaction from county councillors in Longford to its plans.

The city council has known for several years that the city is running out of water and that its reservoir at Vartry in the Wicklow mountains does not have the capacity to serve the growing population of the greater Dublin area.

The council commissioned consultant engineers RPS to conduct a study on future sources of water for the city. Their report produced in 2006 suggested a range of options including desalination and groundwater storage, or bringing water from the Shannon to the city.

The council is conducting a feasibility study on the possibility of taking water from Lough Ree and Lough Derg simultaneously and pumping it to a reservoir on a cut-away bog near Rochfortbridge, Co Westmeath, or taking water from Lough Ree only, Lough Derg only, or from below Ardnacrusha in Co Limerick. The study is due to be completed next year.

RPS, on behalf of the council, has been briefing local authorities and non-governmental organisations in the west and mid-west about the plans over an 18-month period. Most recently it gave a presentation to Longford County Council, following which several councillors said they intended to oppose the plans.

Community groups including the Shannon Protection Alliance, which includes boating enthusiasts, anglers and farmers, are also opposing the plans.

However, the council said it intends to continue with the briefings and the exploration of all possible options for future water supplies for the city.

"The one thing we are sure of is that Dublin and the east will start to run out of water from 2016 due to population growth and, if it does, the entire country will suffer," the council said.

The council was adopting a policy of wide stakeholder consultation, it said, but no decisions would be made until after the feasibility study was completed.

"Dublin City Council has responsibility not to leave future generations without water and these studies, which are at a very early stage, will inform everyone of the possible options."

Once a preferred option is chosen, the council will have to conduct a strategic environmental assessment of the proposal before seeking funding from the Department of the Environment.

The Irish Times

www.buckplanning.ie

Shannon gas plan no harm, board told

A liquified natural gas facility on the Shannon estuary would not threaten the resident bottlenose dolphin population, the nearby Ballylongford oyster beds or the salmon population, a Bord Pleanála hearing has been told, writes Anne Lucey .

Independent experts retained by Shannon LNG to study the effects of the project on the ecology of the estuary told the sixth day of the oral hearing in Tralee that the increase of five or more per cent in shipping channel traffic brought about by the 125 LNG ships would not harm marine life.

They said Shannon LNG had agreed to conditions suggested by the Department of the Environment and would ensure discharges were treated before entering the estuary.

Earlier MEP Kathy Sinnott told the meeting on behalf of the Kilcolgan residents that "LNG is both dirty and dangerous".

Irish Times

www.buckpanning.ie

Group opposes Dublin water project

Campaigners are to step up their protest against proposals by Dublin City Council to draw water from the Shannon.
The Shannon Protection Alliance (SPA) is planning a poster campaign next month in the Lough Ree area in opposition to any attempt by the council to pump water from the lake to Dublin, a distance of 107 kilometres.
Dublin City Council is currently considering either pumping water from the Shannon or a desalination programme using water from Dublin Bay in response to an expected shortage in the next decade. It maintains that these are the only viable options to cope with demand for water in the coming decades.
The council estimates that the population of the greater Dublin area will reach 2.2 million within a decade and 350 million extra litres of water a day will be needed.
The alliance, which involves fishermen, guest-house owners and cruise hire companies, said it has extracted promises from all the candidates standing in the Westmeath-Longford constituency that they will oppose any attempt to extract water from the lake.
Alliance spokesman Michael Barrett, who owns the Lakeside Marina on the shores of Lough Ree, said they are fearful that the proposal will lead to dangerous water levels in the years ahead.
"For the last three years, we've been down to the minimum water levels in July, August and September, barely enabling boats to cruise or to allow Lough Ree to function as a tourist lake.
Dublin City Council deputy engineer Tom Leahy said the cost of either the Shannon or desalination options would be about €600 million at current prices, but the operating costs of desalination at approximately €100 million a year would be four times that of taking water from the Shannon.
He said the amount of water involved would be equal to only 2 per cent of the volume of water in the Shannon in a given year.
Ronan McGreevy
© 2007 The Irish Times