Clonmel water problems will not disappear overnight-Uisce Éireann

Uisce Éireann solutions to the water supply chaos in Clonmel were presented at a public meeting on Monday night.
A five man Uisce Éireann team outlined the plans the have for the three plants that supply the town.
The plan involved the decommissioning of the Poulavanogue plant, the upgrading of Glenary and the upgrading of Monroe.

At the meeting, the Uisce Éireann officials came under enormous pressure to reconsider their plans as members of the Clonmel Business Network expressed their opposition to the closure of the Poulavanogue supply.
They were also opposed to a move for more areas of the town to be served by the Monroe supply as it would mean a hard water supply that would create significant problems and expense concerning the need to regularly replace electrical appliances.

The meeting was told that using the Monroe supply in more of the town would create havoc.
“We want Poulavanogue to be retained not closed down,” said William Burke, Chairman of the Clonmel Business Network, after the meeting.

“I thank Uisce Éireann for coming to the meeting. They have a plan for Clonmel and they are not going to listen to us. They are pressing ahead with their plan. I would ask them, on behalf of the business people of the town, not to go ahead with that plan and to look at finding other solutions,” said William Burke.

Concerning the Poulavanogue plant, the meeting was told by Uisce Éireann officials that it was not possible to build a new treatment plant on the site and it did not feature in the long term plans for Clonmel. New legislation about to be introduced would mean that they would be able to take even less water than what they do now from that source in the future.
ADDITIONAL CAPACITY
Because Poulavanogue was deemed not suitable, they had made plans to move to Monroe to create additional capacity there for Clonmel.

Colin Cunningham, Uisce Éireann, said there would be a significant upgrade of the entire Glenary plant which was at design stage at the moment and in addition to that, a new pipeline would be laid.
“We have a trunk main that comes out of Glenary and then it splits 2 km down the road. Some of the water goes into the reservoir and some goes into town. We will lay another pipe so that all of the water goes into the reservoir and give storage to the whole area that Glenary currently supplies. That pipe would be laid in advance and the treatment plant would be getting designed and planned in the background. The works would start next year and it would be a 24 month programme,” he said.

The official said the upgrade in Monroe would run in tandem.
“The Monroe upgrade would increase the capacity of the treatment plant in Monroe and a new pipeline would be laid from Monroe to Giantsgrave reservoir, which is a substantial reservoir, so we can send additional water to Giantsgrave. There will be approximately 14 km of upgrade. Some of the pipe work from Giantsgrave into the town would need to be replaced, as it was old, or upsized. We would hope everything would be finished in Monroe by 2026,” he said.

Jim Fitzgerald, regional manager for Uisce Éireann for an area that is made up of 9 counties of which Tipperary was the biggest and was also the county that recorded the most supply issues. He said there would be regular monthly meetings with the Clonmel Business Network and said there was also a workshop planned with politicians for September 19 to discuss the issues raised at the meeting.

Outraged Clonmel business owners slam Uisce Éireann for the water supply crisis in the town

The regional manager said he accepted that the website could be improved and agreed that information regarding Boil Water Notices should be found quickly.
“If people cannot find that information quickly on the website, then that is wrong,” he said. He accepted improvements needed to happen concerning communication.

“There is no magic wand,” Jim Fitzgerald told the meeting. He said the problems in Clonmel were not going to disappear overnight and they were not prepared to put people at risk.
He said they would love to have Poulavanogue if there was enough water in the supply and abstraction was not an issue. It would be replaced by 2026, he told the meeting. Responding to questions concerning compensation to business people in Clonmel for loss of income due to water outages, Jim Fitzgerald said compensation was not in their remit.