Controversial €1.3bn pipe project to supply counties including Kilkenny adopted

Irish Water has adopted its controversial Regional Water Resources Plan – Eastern and Midlands (RWRP-EM).

The plan will see 333 million litres of water taken from Parteen Basin below Lough Derg and pumped along a 174km pipe via a pump station at Birdhill to a new reservoir outside Dublin which will feed the Greater Dublin Area as well as counties Kildare, Wicklow, Offaly, Westmeath, Laois, Galway, Clare, Limeick, Cavan, Carlow, Longford, Roscommon, Kilkenny, Meath.

The estimated cost of construction is estimated to be more than €1.3bn.

There are 14 key towns in the Eastern and Midlands region, which are, Athlone, Carlow, Ennis, Limerick, Nenagh, Tullamore, Portlaoise, Naas, Maynooth, Navan, Drogheda, Swords, Bray and Wicklow.

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There were 64 submissions received in total, including responses from the Office of the Planning Regulator, the Southern Regional Assembly and local authorities in relation to national and regional policy for growth and development.

The final consultation report runs to 341 pages as is available to read online or download at www.water.ie/rwrp/eastern-midlands

Among the comments and observations made during the consultation process, Tipperary County Council noted that Irish Water has developed a 10-year capacity register based on an amended Supply Demand Balance (SDB) to provide local authorities with an indication of settlements, which have potential capacity constraints and that this capacity register will be made available.

The council welcomed input into the proposed process which will involve an ongoing feedback loop between the resources planning process and the forward planning processes in Irish Water, the regional assembles and the local authorities.

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This, they noted, will enable Irish Water to update the SBD annually in line with the data received, allow Irish Water to respond to growth and development needs and prioritise water supply investment in collaboration with local authorities with reference to the CDPs and Local Area Plans.

In relation to observations of the proposed Shannon pipe, called the New Shannon Source in the report, one stakeholder noted that, as a landowner on the proposed route for the pipe, they would consider the proposal to be against the principles of balanced regional development.

They also noted that fresh water, as a natural resource of the Midlands and west of Ireland, should be used as a resource for the development of the Mid-West instead of extracting it and transferring it to the Dublin region, which is already facing congestion and overdevelopment.

The stakeholder noted that water shortages in the GDA could be addressed by fixing the water leaks in the current water pipe network.

Another stakeholder queried whether desalination plants on the East coast have been considered as an alternative option.

They noted the issues associated with water transfer from the Shannon to the East coast such as lowering the level of the Shannon waters, property acquisitions, rights of way, archaeological issues, environmental impact, landowner co-operation / buy-in, legal issues, contractor access and egress issues.

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Clare County Council’s Killaloe Municipal District stated they were opposed to the proposed use of the River Shannon as a main source of supply for the Eastern and Midlands region.

Future Proof Clare noted the River Shannon Protection Alliance and their concerns of how much water can be taken from the Parteen River Basin during the summer low flow conditions and they felt that any large-scale extraction, such as the proposed Shannon pipeline, would have a detrimental effect on the ecosystems relying on the river and should be avoided.

Ibec commented that the new Shannon source and the water supply project for the Eastern and Midlands Region must be advanced at the earliest opportunity.

Kildare Chamber agreed that the new Shannon source was the most suitable and sustainable model.

Wicklow County Council welcomed the new Shannon source stating that the proposal was critical to ensuring that the capacity of water supply in the GDA was ahead of future water demand as the region grew and developed.

Cllr Tony O’Brien from Clare County Council raised concerns over the impact of such a project on the River Shannon and recommended that the communities along Lough Derg would need recognition of the impact on the county of such a project.

Limerick Greens commented that Irish Water should find sustainable solutions to any forecasted water deficit for the current population of the Greater Dublin Area, rather than the development of the new Shannon source.

They also queried if the new source was likely to adversely influence planning authority decisions on granting planning permission for new planning applications in the Limerick, Tipperary and Clare countryside.

In response, the report says that the plan identified a significant deficit for the Greater Dublin Area and a pipeline from Shannon to Dublin was identified as the preferred approach for the GDA and subsequently at a regional level.

This new source option, when compared to 11 other feasible combinations of solutions, was determined as the solution with the least impact to the environment.

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Desalination solutions were considered as feasible options for the Greater Dublin Area at fine screening, however, were discounted via the option selection process.

The draft RWRP-EM had already determined that the volume of water required was available from the new Shannon source, as assessments have been undertaken to establish the allowable abstraction. This is an estimate of the water that can be taken from the source whilst maintaining the required environmental flow.

The proposed abstraction is from an impounding reservoir / dam, which meant it is possible to store water during periods of high rainfall, and during a drought period, the abstraction will be taken from this storage, without impacting on flows downstream of the dam.