Water Disruption during December and January

I tabled the following motion:
The Celbridge Area committee are provided with a report on the recent water disruptions, including:
(1) The locations where no running water was available within our electoral area;
(2) The availability of water and what are the shortcomings in supply, what action is needed to remediate this;
(3) The locations where there is a persistent problem and what action can be taken. (4) The capacity for the council to respond i.e. tanker provision, information provision etc.

The report I received stated: Areas within the Celbridge Electoral Area without running water during the recent inclement weather, was mainly due to the following:
(a) Frozen private service connections,
(b) Some areas were either without water entirely or had reduced pressure during night-time restrictions.
(c) Some areas suffered intermittent problems due to frozen valves, but were attended to and fixed once we became aware of the problem.
(d) Areas affected due to bursts.

2. The same water sources were available as prevailed prior to the recent crisis. The problem was that demand reached extraordinary levels which resulted in reservoir levels dropping drastically. This required emergency action by the Water Services Department so as to ensure at least a limited supply.Staff made themselves available during the holiday period to maintain the network, manage reservoir levels, co-ordinate tankering arrangements, repair leaks/bursts, provide information to the media and members of Council, operate emergency lines etc.
Action required includes a better appreciation for water conservation by the general public, ongoing investment in leak detection and the progression of the proposed Dublin Regional Supply scheme so as to ensure sustainable supply of drinking water to the entire Greater Dublin Area. It is hoped that the formal signing of the Barrow Abstraction contract will be completed next month and this will result in a further additional supply of circa 32 megalitres of water per day to the region with effect from Q1 2013.In addition, as part of the Water Services Investment Programme (2010 – 2012), this Council in conjunction with the DOEHLG, will be fast-tracking the construction of the Castlewarden to Ballygoran scheme with a view to completion in Q4 of 2012. This project will include the up-grading of the reservoir at Ballygoran from 10 megalitres capacity to 30 megalitres. In addition, a new watermain (450mm) will be constructed from the reservoir to Celbridge. These measures which, inter alia, involve the conveyance of water from the Ballymore Eustace supply will greatly improve the security of supply to the North-East of the county including Celbridge. Water pressure will also be enhanced.

3. We are not aware of any areas suffering from consistent problems in the Celbridge Electoral area. Admittedly areas on high ground dependent on levels in Ballygoran reservoir and at the end of the distribution network would be more severely affected due to the restrictions imposed and when storage levels became severely depleted on 27 December 2010.

4. The Council has direct labour crews available 24/7 to respond to drinking water incidents. Each crew has stand-pipes available to provide water at short notice to areas suffering from supply. Back-up support from the Civil Defence Service is also available in this regard during emergencies. In tandem with this, we have approximately 24 water tankers available for private hire at short notice. We also update our website on a daily basis during times of major incidents and have adequate numbers of clerical staff to call on at short-notice to operate the phones in such circumstances. Arrangements in this regard are currently being strengthened.”

The Ballygoran upgrade due in 2012  is essential if supplies are to be maintained at time when water supply is reduced.   It was stressed at the meeting by the Council Officials that there is a serious undersupply of water in the Greater Dublin Area,  until that is resolved there may be a repeat of the problem.      The Council have done a de-briefing of frontline staff it is hoped a further and more comprehensive report will be provided later in January.

A linked question was tabled by Cllr Griffin in relation stop cocks freezing.  Below is the report that was provided to the committee:

“Kildare County Council’s level of responsibility with regards to the supply of drinking water to premises extends from the water treatment plant as far as the stop- cock outside the premises. While the stop-cock is the property of Kildare County Council; from the stop-cock to the premises is private. From our experience, stop- cocks normally only freeze if the connection between it and the property had already frozen. Therefore, so long as the public mains is running, the council’s level of responsibility with regards to the stop-cock is fulfilled. While Kildare County Council could invest in a program of reducing the level of prone connections, an investment of hundreds of thousands of euro would be needed, and would be wasted unless the householder, in tandem, reduced the level of their own connection and re-laid with better insulation to protect against further freezing.
Water services recommendation, therefore, is that the plan envisaged would be ineffective unless householders take similar action, and the Council will have to budget accordingly. Water services would be recommending a budget of up to €100,000 if the council were to proceed.”

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Posted by catherinemurphy on January 21, 2011. Filed under Ardclough,Celbridge,Leixlip,Maynooth,Straffan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.