This article is from page 10 of the 2011-02-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 10 JPG
TWO West Clare water treatment plants provided approximately 2,000 cubic metres per day of water to Ennis and Clarecastle during the freezing weather, despite suffering severe leaks.
According to figures from the Water and Sanitary Services in Clare County Council, before the thawfreeze problems at the end of December and beginning of January, the combined production of the two Doolough treatment plants were approximately 13,500 cubic metres per day.
During the period December 20, 2010, to January 6, 2011, the average production was approximately 20,700 cubic metres per day – an increase of 53 per cent on normal supply.
As about 2,000 cubic metres per day of this water was sent to the Ennis area to ensure domestic and industrial supply in Clarecastle, the amount of water being lost in the area to leaks was estimated at 18,700 cubic metres squared.
During the later half of this month the two plants were continuing to lose 25 per cent of their combined normal supply to leaks indicating that there was still a lot of work to be done in locating and repairing leaks at west Clare’s largest treatment plants.
The Gortglass Lake treatment plant lost 500 cubic metres, or 50 per cent of its usually supply, every day during the bad weather due to leaks.
Council officials attributed the relatively few cases of water loss in west Clare this winter to “good spare capacity” in west Clare treatment plants and the large sizing and relatively new condition if much of the network.
There was therefore little or no need for overnight shut-offs to allow reservoirs to replenish as had to be done in the rest of the county.
“However, even though consumers may not have been as directly affected, the leaks and losses of treated water caused by the weather were, and still remain, just as important an issues in west Clare as in the rest of the county,” explained Sean Ward, Senior Engineer with Clare County Council.
“Unsustainable additional expense has been and is being incurred in locating and repairing leaks, and in treating and pumping the additional quantities of water being demanded by the network.”