THE GOVERNMENT has been urged to hold a public inquiry into the ESB’s decision to release massive volumes of flood water from Inniscarra dam, which led to extensive flooding in western parts of Cork city last month.
The call came from Labour councillor Michael O’Connell, who said the ESB had a number of questions to answer in relation to its handling of the crisis situation that developed when heavier-than-predicted rainfall fell in the Lee Valley on November 19th.
The ESB has already defended its handling of the situation at Inniscarra, saying it was forced to increase discharge levels to an unprecedented 535 cubic metres a second to avoid uncontrolled flooding as water was entering the catchment at over 800 cubic metres a second.
Mr O’Connell’s call came during a debate at Cork City Council last night after Cork city manager Joe Gavin presented a report on the flooding in the city where some 18,000 householders were left without water after the city’s main pumping station was flooded.
Mr Gavin said the ESB advised the council at 11.30am on November 19th that discharge levels would rise to more than 200 cubic metres a second over the next few hours and could later reach up to 300 cubic metres a second.
At 5pm, the ESB said discharge levels would now reach 300 cubic metres a second, but within 30 minutes it had revised this and told the council that discharge levels would exceed that level.
At 8.40pm, high tides passed without incident and at 9pm, water levels were reducing at Grenville Place on the north channel of the river. However water levels began to rise again.
At 10.10pm, council staff had to contact the ESB when they became concerned about water levels at the Lee Road pumping station. The ESB advised that water levels would now reach 450 cubic metres a second.
By midnight, the Lee Road pumping station had to be shut down to prevent contamination of the public water supply as the station was being flooded, Mr Gavin said.