This article is from page 29 of the 2007-04-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 29 JPG
ESB officials told members of Clare County Council that there is little they can do to prevent further major flooding in Clonlara.
Pat Naughton, Manager of the ESB’s Hydro Stations gave members of the council a detailed explanation last week on how the power com- pany deals with outflow from Lough Derg and the volume of water going through the Ardnacrusha turbines.
Shocked councillors, who had made representations on behalf of house- holders who had to be evacuated from heir homes last Christmas, heard that there is every chance that the flood- ing may happen again.
Rainfall during December and Jan- uary of last year was “exceptionally high” with almost a metre of rain fall- ing, he said.
A major problem in dealing with water levels in the river Shannon, he said, is that the power company is dealing with narrow. channels and large lakes.
“In flood conditions, the ESB has to spill water down the river. If we don’t match inflows with outflows, we are in breach of our statutory duty,’ he said.
While the company make every ef- fort to anticipate what will happen us- ing advance weather forecasts, it can be “unpredictable, with wind and lo- cal rainfall affecting conditions. With
sustained rainfall, the ESB’s influ- ence on flows is marginal,’ he said.
In December and January last, the power company started spilling water as soon as levels rose and continued to do this on an increasing basis as rain became heavier, members were Ke (en
Records show that the Shannon has flooded on a cyclical basis going back to the 1930s, and the floods experi- enced recently are not even the worst that have happened, Mr Naughton Sr HLee
“The power company 1s co-operat- ing with the Office of Public Works in cleaning out the section where the Mulcair meets the Shannon, but there is no way of telling if this will help
the situation,” he added.
Councillor Cathal Crowe said that it seems “the statutory requirements in relation to levels in Lough Derg seem to need revising. Homes three quar- ters of a mile from the Shannon were under water. There were fish in back gardens and slurry and sewerage in contact with fresh water.”
He added that the ESB “needs to re- view its system of communication to warn people about flooding”.
Cllr Paschal Fitzgerald asked why the power company “only told people in the area six hours after the water had been let out”, while Cllr Tony O’Brien said that there should be “a single advisory body dealing with flooding on the Shannon’.