This article is from page 6 of the 2012-07-10 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
LAST Wednesday’s temporary loss of water supply to parts of Ennis and its surrounds was a result of a burst mains on a main trunk supply from the Drumcliff reservoir.
Clare County Council identified the problem quickly and worked through Wednesday night to ensure supply was fully restored within 24 hours.
During the disruption Ennis General Hospital was without water for a short time but fire services using water tankers ensured that hospital supplies of water were unaffected by the loss of supply.
According to Senior Engineer with Clare County Council Sean Ward, the discovered leak was a serious one.
“On Wednesday morning we observed high flows through our district meter on Sandfield Road, indicating that there was a major leak or burst in that district.
“We shut the district off at 10am, located the burst and started to repair it,” he told The Clare People , adding that very quickly people were in contact with the council to report water issues.
“CCC staff immediately started inspecting the network to locate any other bursts that might account for this loss of pressure.
“With the assistance of the operating contractor’s staff at Drumcliffe water treatment plant, a major leak was found on one of the two trunk supply mains from Drumcliffe reservoir to the town,” Sean said.
To protect the town’s main water supply, the council took the decision to temporarily cut off the main supply route in question.
The burst section of main was exposed by 6pm and repaired by 9.30pm. Ennis area staff then worked during the night and again early the following morning to ensure that supply was getting back to all areas. Mr Ward praised the co-operation of local landowner Pat Tierney, who facilitated the early repair work.
“Clare County Council would like to record its appreciation to Pat Tierney, the owner of the land on which the trunk main burst occurred, for readily facilitating entry to his land to allow the big main to be repaired this greatly assisted the speed of our response,” he added.