Water treatment plant lying idle

A PURPOSE-built €900,000 water treatment plant located close to Ennis has been lying idle for over two years after a rural group water scheme reverted back to its old plant.

The new treatment plant for the Killone Group Water Scheme (KGWS) was shut down on April 28, 2009 due to the production of non-compliant treated water following the dramatic deterioration in the quality of the raw water source from nearby Killone Lake, it has been revealed. The scheme serves a large number of households and farms in the Ballyea/Clarecastle area.
Environment Minister Phil Hogan has been asked to appoint an independent arbitrator to examine the difficulties with the new plant and a number of unresolved issues affecting the scheme involving KGWS and other parties.
The main contractor, EPS, has insisted it has fully complied with all the contract requirements and, in many cases, exceeded its own obligations and has not been penalised for the services it has provided. EPS said the shutdown had nothing to do with the design, suitability or capacity of the plant to deal with the water supply as contracted but exclusively related to significant deterioration of the quality of the source supply through a proliferation of algal bloom.
The company has constructed up to 1,000 group water schemes since 1972 and says this is the first instance that it has been instructed to shut down a plant. It pledged to return and finish this contract to everybody’s satisfaction at short notice but stressed compromise and goodwill is needed to resolve outstanding issues satisfactorily.
Clare County Councillor Johnny Flynn has called for the appointment of an arbitrator to seek an effective and acceptable resolution of issues, including raw water quality, water demand, treated water quality and quantity, condition and size of scheme’s water reservoir payment for recent upgrading of the old plant by the group, as well as payment of both production and network subsidies.
The Ennis East councillor said the existence of old and new treatment plants with the new facility no longer producing compliant drinking water since April 2009 is unacceptable.
Sharing his concern, Deputy Joe Carey, a group scheme user, said it isn’t right to see the KGWS spending large sums of money upgrading the old water treatment facility and the nearby reservoir while a new plant is left lying idle nearby.
Deputy Carey called on all the interested parties to discuss short and long-term solutions as a matter of urgency. “I don’t want to see a situation where people in the area could be left without water. The KGWS were left with no option but to revert to the old treatment plant and new technology, which isn’t acceptable considering the public expenditure on the new plant,” he said.
EPS Ireland was awarded the contract to design, build and operate four large well-established group schemes in Clare – Killone, Lissycasey, Kilmaley and Toonagh-Dysart in 2005.
The contract for the new Killone plant, including both the design and build (D&B) phase and the operation and maintenance (O&M) phase, was produced by Jennings O’Donovan and Partners Consulting Engineers (JOD), who were appointed by Clare County Council as the employers’ representative.
After JOD issued the taking over certificate in January 2007, KGWS became owners of the plant and entered into a 20-year operation and maintenance contract with EPS, which ceased in April 2009 when KGWS went back to its original treatment plant.
A JOD spokesman said the company had successfully delivered the project outline specification and had managed the procurement process for the Killone scheme. He said a difficulty arose, which could have been resolved thanks to the willingness of the council, Department of the Environment and EPS to find a solution. He claimed that all these parties had bent over backwards to try and assist Killone but the group hadn’t agreed with what was put forward as a solution.
“KGWS has indicated that it does not intend to seek funding for an upgrade of its treatment plant within the context of the original contract and proposes its own design submission.
“The council will work with KGWS in preparing a case to the department for funding of an upgrade. However, the council is not in a position to indicate the department’s position on funding support for any upgrade application that is made outside the context of the 2006-2007 contract,” said Clare County Council senior executive engineer, Sean Ward.
The new Killone water treatment plant started producing treated water in January 2007 from Killone Lake, which was the contract source of raw water and provided compliant water for about six months. Difficulties arose concerning the quantity and quality of the treated water produced in June 2007.
According to a statement issued by KGWS, EPS claimed it was experiencing difficulties treating water from Killone Lake primarily due to a high algal content. The group acknowledged if the parametric values of the raw water exceed those stated in the contract, EPS is not obliged to treat the raw water from the contract source, even though there is no limit for algal content.
In early June 2007, EPS installed a borehole as an alternative source of raw water. It produced treated water from a combination of both this borehole and the lake until sometime around late August, when the group understands EPS produced treated water solely from the borehole.
The group said it never consented to this borehole and alleged it didn’t receive any detailed test results of its raw water quality. From June 2007 to February 2008, the group experienced partial or complete loss of supply on an ongoing basis to the scheme because the borehole did not have the capacity to produce the required contractual daily quantity of 288m3, as the daily demand was between 300 and 340m3.
The group claimed it asked EPS to use Killone Lake as the raw water source but EPS declined.
“KGWS had no choice but to reconnect our existing ‘mothballed’ treatment plant to the reservoir, together with major refurbishment and improvements to the plant in order to supplement treated water to the required standard with reliability. This work started in March 2008 and is ongoing at significant effort and cost to KGWS.”
EPS Ltd recommenced treating raw water from Killone Lake on March 30, 2009. After a short duration, difficulties were experienced by EPS in providing both the necessary daily quantity and treated water to the necessary standards.
This culminated in the EPS plant shutting down production of treated water on April 28 indefinitely.
“KGWS acknowledged the efforts of EPS Ltd to treat the raw water from the lake from March 30, 2009 and that the raw water exceeded the limits as specified in the contract,” said a group statement.
According to EPS, KGWS continuously required volumes in excess of the design of the treatment plant, which it frequently produced.
“Subsequently, the usage went from 288m3/day to 380m3/day, which put stress on the plant. The quality of the lake water disimproved in May/June 2007 owing to high colour and the plant was not able to keep the quality of the water within the specified parameters.
“However, Killone would never agree to upgrading their plant to cope with this new situation. Notwithstanding much talk and unsatisfactory meetings, EPS, though not obligated to, proceeded to find an alternative water supply. The company drilled a well at its own cost, which has not been recouped several years later.
“EPS spared no effort to ensure the scheme was not left without water. This well was tested for flow for 48 hours and was tested chemically and bacteriologically by an independent laboratory. The quality was brilliant. It needed no treatment other than chlorine/UV. EPS used this as the raw water source for approximately two years, producing excellent quality water in abundant volumes, as the lake continued to be outside of contract specification. EPS did provide test results and has fully complied with and, in many cases, exceeded its contract requirements,” the company explained.
While a group representative agreed to make the borehole the alternative source, EPS pointed out this was not acceptable to the group. “Against EPS’ advice, the scheme instructed EPS to use the lake as the raw water source.
“The lake water was outside contract specification. Within 28 days of switching from the borehole to the lake, the plant was unable to produce compliant water due to the fouling of the filtration system with the non-compliant lake water.
“Once the plant was in production and being operated by EPS there was no requirement to provide daily results. Daily results were only necessary during the ‘process proving’ period prior to takeover,” the company statement added.