Urgent funds appeal for Ballycullane water plant
IRISH Water is being called on to fund major works at Taylorstown water treatment plant near Ballycullane.
Senior Executive Engineer Daniel McCartan said water services staff worked throughout Storm Emma monitoring facilities both remotely and on site. Services for the main supplies in the area were maintained throughout for New Ross, Clonroche and Carrickbyrne and many of the small public areas, he said.
The South Regional Water Supply Scheme was severely disrupted by the storm. ‘Demand increased in the hours leading up to the storm and this resulted in a small decrease of water in storage. A major ESB outage occurred between 1 p.m. on Friday, March 2 and 3.30 p.m. on Sunday, March 4, which impacted the Taylorstown water treatment plant and the Ballycullane reservoir.’
Mr McCartan said staff were on site at Taylorstown during the worst of the storm. The plant was restarted at 8 p.m. that day using an on-site generator. However, filters required full backwash to ensure good quality drinking water and to provide extended treatment capacity. The plant was operated at full capacity until the Sunday at 8 p.m. at which time through-flow was stopped due to the poor quality of raw water. Staff were on site for extended periods monitoring the process to esnure supply and quality of treated water were maintained. The plant was restarted at 3 p.m on Monday, March 5.
Mr McCartan said the impact on the Ballycullane reservoir began on March 1, pre-storm, with an increased demand and was followed by a water supply cut the next day due to the ESB outage, followed by the Taylorstown water treatment plant being shut down on Sunday and Monday. ‘ This was exacerbated by increases in demand across the system. By the early hours on Monday the reservoir was virtually empty and all supplies were affected.’
Most supplies were down less than two days but some customers were severely disrupted. This was due to a combination of the power outage, impacts of the storm and the subsequent shutdown of the Taylorstown plant to maintain quality drinking water. Customers most affected were in the areas of Ballycullane village, Ramsgrange and higher areas supplied by Shielbaggan and Battlestown boosters. Other areas that experienced outage due to pumping equipment failure included Ballyhack and Broomhill.
Mr McCartan said water services staff expedited pump repairs within 24 hours of the storm abating. Other measures that were implemented included water tankers being sent to the most affected areas, drinking water being supplied to vulnerable customers, vulnerable customers being contacted by phone and assistance provided where required and leak detection and repairs.
Mr McCartan said a review is under way to assess storm impacts and to make improvements to minimise outages going forward. He said water supply was restored since March 7 to all customers. In addition to infrastructure review, work is ongoing in repairing damaged equipment, managing water treatment post snow melt and finding and repairing leaks.
In response to a question from Cllr Michael Whelan, Mr McCartan said he was pushing as hard as he could with Irish Water to get the Fairgreen moved across to St Martin’s Park water supply. He said the way across the bridge line in the village has been approved for Somer’s Way estate to be included in the water system also. Staff and contractors were on call 24/7 througout the storm, he added. ‘ The contractor got machines to assist us in clearing the way for staff.’
He said a plan needs to be devised to ensure staff are accommodated near the treatment plants to ensure they can access them as quickly as possible. ‘Some are down back roads. The water staff worked throughout the storm, 24/7. Staff were watching everything and working non stop even if they weren’t on site. From our point of view I don’t think we could have done anything differently and everything was done correctly.’
District Director Eamonn Hore said it was a good decision to shut off the water supply. ‘ The raw water, when it came into Enniscorthy, resulted in a boil water notice,’ he said. ‘It goes into all the water storage tanks as well. They would have had to boil all of the water. Tankers would have had to have been supplied for drinking water and a boiled water notice would have had to remain in place until you could prove all of the poor quality water was out of the system. You might have to go in and clean out tanks and reservoirs and empty out old reservoirs which would cause a big disruption to the whole area. Sampling and testing would have to be carried out for the HSE and EPA.’
Cllr Fitzharris said: ‘It was a tough call to make and not an easy decision, fair play.’
Mr McCartan said: ‘I think it was the right decision. I think that it was straightforward decision as you are trying to optimise what you have and keep it going.’
He said massive capital investment is needed for the Taylorstown plant, adding that the caretaker kept the plant going as long as he could. Describing the situation in the south west of the county as ‘unprecedented,’ Mr McCartan said: ‘I have never seen the whole place, over 300km of network out. Any high parts of the network were empty. Operationally there as nothing we could do about it.’
Vulnerable people were contacted and updated, he added.
‘A farmer with 400 animals called me; fortunately he wasn’t out for long. When I rang him and others back they were glad.’
Cllr Whelan thanked Mr McCartan and his team, saying they had to get through a lot of snow to get to the Taylorstown plant. ‘ To get to Taylorstown in weather like that was impressive. There are hills on both sides. Maybe skiiing lessons should be provided.’
Cllr Michael Sheehan thanked the water services crew for their work in New Ross, saying: ‘ They were working flat out to ensure that at no time the town was out,’ and Mr Hore echoed his praise.
Mr McCartan said: ‘We may also look at a bigger scheme as we need to minimise the amount of infrastructure we have. We can try to improve the current set up.’
Residents affected by water outages were urged to contact Irish Water to advance the case for investment in the area, by Cllr Martin Murphy.