Vartry water levels ‘will remain safe’
Irish Water insists that a proposed upgrade to the water treatment plant at the Vartry Reservoir won’t have a negative impact on water levels in the Vartry River.
Claims that the upgrade will result in a reduction of flow into the Vartry by 2/3 have been rejected by Irish Water.
Vartry Project Manager, Geoff O’Sullivan, said that five million litres of water will be released into the river each day to maintain its current water levels.
This compensatory flow is designed to replace water that leaks from the current water treatment plant on a variable basis.
Mr O’Sullivan said: ‘We won’t be abstracting any additional water from the Vartry Reservoirs or from the catchment of the River Vartry.
‘ The volume of water abstracted will be the same as it has been over the last 150 years, since the scheme was commissioned.
‘ There is no question of reducing the water flowing into the river by 2/3. What Irish Water has committed to is ensuring that a compensatory flow of 5 mega-litres will be released to the River Vartry at all times, including during drought periods. This is an additional benefit to the river that does not exist at the moment.’
Up to 2008, the average discharge to the River Vartry averaged 4.6 MLD. As a result of failures within the existing treatment plant the discharge has averaged 10.6 MLD since 2008.
In that time, the discharge each summer has reduced to approximately 6 MLD with the discharge as low as 3 MLD in 2013.
The upgraded water treatment plant won’t discharge any water used in the treatment process to the river, instead all the water used in the treatment process will be recirculated through the treatment plant.
The discharge from the present water treatment plant to the River Vartry averaged 4.6 MLD up to 2008.
As a result of failures within the existing treatment plant the discharge has averaged 10.6 MLD since 2008. Since 2008, the discharge each summer has reduced to approximately 6 MLD with the discharge as low as 3 MLD in 2013.
Mr O’Sullivan adds, ‘discharges from the Water Treatment Plant contribute only a portion of the total flow in the River Vartry downstream from the site.
‘ There is over 55 km of catchment downstream from the site that contributes the majority of flows to the river.
‘ The volume of normal discharge that has flowed into the River Vartry since its impoundment in the 1860s will be maintained.
‘All natural flows to the river from groundwater and tributaries will not be affected.’
The project received planning consent from Wicklow County Council in November 2016 and has been appealed to An Bord Pleanála.
An Bord Pleanála are presently considering the appeal and are due to make a decision later this year.