€9.8 million water plant opened by Gormley

Opening the new €9.8 million Ennis water treatment plant at Drumcliffe last Friday, Minister for the Environment and Local Government, John Gormley, said that the plant would meet the needs of the town in terms of water quantity and water quality for the next 10 years.

The new plant will deliver 18 megalitres of drinking water daily to the 35,000 people living in Ennis and its environs.
“The new plant features the very best in modern, safe water treatment to tackle the water-quality problems that have affected the town’s water supply in the past. Ennis now has a reliable water supply delivered by the new plant that complies fully with drinking water standards and is subject to the most stringent quality monitoring regime,” he commented.
The facility incorporates the largest membrane filtration system in a public water scheme in Ireland. It provides high-quality drinking water to approximately 30,000 consumers in Ennis town and the neighbouring areas of Barefield, Crusheen, Clarecastle and Doora.
The project was developed following the introduction of new, more stringent drinking water regulations and the detection of cryptosporidium in the local water source in 2005. The subsequent drinking water alert was officially lifted in December 2009, a few weeks after the new water treatment plant was commissioned.
Mayor of Clare, Councillor Tony Mulcahy, described the official opening of the new works as a significant milestone in the delivery of quality drinking water supplies to consumers and communities across Clare.
Mayor of Ennis, Councillor Frankie Neylon, added that the project would help ensure good-quality drinking water for thousands of consumers in Ennis town and surrounding areas.
County manager Tom Coughlan said the Ennis Treatment Works greatly enhances the quality of water being provided to householders and business alike.
The new plant was funded under the minister’s water services investment programme and has been procured as a public-private partnership using a design build operate contract in which the contractor is responsible for the design and construction of the plant as well as for its operation and maintenance for a 20-year period.
The project team included Clare County Council, Mott MacDonald, Ireland Technical Data (consultant) and EPS Bowen Consortium (contractor). The source for the Ennis Water Supply Scheme is the Drumcliffe Springs, located to the west of the town on the western bank of the River Fergus.
Drumcliffe Springs has operated as the raw water source for Ennis since the 1940s and has been upgraded and expanded in stages since then.
A reservoir was constructed in the early 1970s and a second reservoir was constructed in 1990, when fluoridation and gas chlorination were also provided.
The minister also confirmed that the new Water Services Investment Programme for Clare includes a substantial programme of seven water and sewerage schemes to the value of almost €30 million under construction that will deliver much-needed infrastructure in the short to medium term, with a further five schemes being advanced through planning that will deliver in the longer term, under the next phase of the programme, post-2012.
The schemes at planning include two phases of the Ennis/Clarecastle Sewerage Scheme, which the council has prioritised as key wastewater infrastructure to meet current needs and ensure the continuing economic development of the town in a sustainable way. “I am conscious of the importance of upgrading the waste water infrastructure in Ennis town as part of its future development and to complement the new water infrastructure we are opening today. My department recently approved the council’s proposal to extend the brief of its consultants to advance the future planning of this scheme,” the minister added.
The new programme also includes two water conservation contracts worth over €6 million that are also due to start in the Ennis area in the next three years.
Clare County Council has prioritised rehabilitation works on old distribution mains in the Ennis supply network and is also engaged in lead pipe replacement on the public supply side at various locations in the town.
The minister emphasised the importance of these works. “We must remember that the new plant is producing 18 megalitres of drinking water a day. It is imperative that this water is delivered via a modern and efficient distribution network,” he added.

No water waiver for Ennis householders
ENNIS householders will not be exempt or get a waiver on water charges when they are introduced, according to Minister for the Environment and Local Government, John Gormley.
He said that “a special case” could not be made of Ennis or any other town, in this respect.
The Mayor of Ennis, Frankie Neylon, has called for a waiver on water charges for Ennis people because of the amount of money they have spent on water during the period from 2005 and 2009 when precautionary boil notices were in place on the Ennis public water supply.
Minister Gormley, responding to questions in relation to a possible water charge waiver scheme, said,
“You have to understand that we are already paying for water in this country. Water falls from the sky but it has to be treated and that costs about a billion euro per annum.
“If people understand that they are getting a free ­allocation of water and they pay on top of that, most ­reasonable people will buy into it,” he commented.
He has previously indicated that every household will be allocated a certain amount of “free” water but beyond that they will be charged a water rate.
“I can’t make a special case and nor can any government, frankly. I don’t care what the constitution of the government is, whether its Fianna Fáil or the PDs or the Greens, or Fine Gael and Labour, nobody can make a special provision for one town,” the minister said.
“I think that if people get an appreciation of what an important resource water is, and if they understand the concept that they get a free allocation of water under the new water metering programme, I think most people will buy into that concept”.
He also confirmed that the replacement of lead pipe networks in Ennis will be completed.
“We, the Government, haven’t received any real acknowledgement for the expedient manner in which lead pipe networks had been replaced in Galway City.
“We’re going to do the same in Ennis. Don’t worry. Previous governments never did this. We’re doing it,” he added.