EPA ‘anxious’ €200m Vartry reservoir upgrade proceeds

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said it is “anxious” that a €200 million upgrade of the Vartry reservoir in Co Wicklow go ahead, in part because of chemicals in the water which have been linked to cancer.

The reservoir near Roundwood currently supplies 15 per cent of the Dublin region’s water, covering 200,000 people in north Co Wicklow and areas of Dublin including Clontarf via the Stillorgan reservoir.

However, the EPA said the Victorian era site occasionally exceeds acceptable levels for trihalomethanes, chemicals produced in peaty water during the purification process which have been linked to a range of cancers by the World Health Organisation.

Darragh Page, senior inspector with the EPA’s office of environmental enforcement, said the presence of trihalomethanes in the supply was only “occasional” and values were just above the acceptable levels. He added that Vartry was the largest supply point on the EPA’s remedial action list and that the water “should be compliant at all times”.

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“We are anxious that it be upgraded,” he said.

Permission appealed

Planning permission for a new treatment plant, part of a €200 million upgrade of the facility, was granted by Wicklow County Council last October but has been appealed to An Bord Pleanála.

Among the appellants are Inland Fisheries Ireland, the owners of Mount Usher Gardens in Ashford, the Avoca cafe chain, and several angling and environmental organisations. Much of the concern about the project centres on potentially lower water levels in the Vartry river downstream of the reservoir, particularly at Ashford.

The council said these concerns arise because valves in the existing treatment plant have been leaking for years, leading to increased flows into the river. Once the new plant is in place the leaks would be eliminated.

The council rejected this concern because of evidence from Irish Water showing leakages were pumped back into the reservoir to maintain water supply.

Current water levels in the reservoir are particularly low for the time of the year, as a result of it being an unusually dry winter.

Irish Water’s Geoff O’Sullivan, project manager for the upgrade, said there would be no increase in the amount of water taken from the reservoir when the new plant is complete. He said the utility firm wanted to be a good neighbour and “compensation water” of five million litres every day would be pumped into the Vartry river to ensure it did not go dry even in drought conditions.

Although no additional water will be extracted, the upgrade works will enable the extension of the areas supplied by Vartry to mid-Wicklow towns and villages such as Rathdrum, Aughrim, Avoca and Redcross. These areas are currently served by water sources which have been identified by the EPA as being at risk of failing to meet drinking-water regulations.