Sir, – Following on from correspondence by Tom Leahy, Dublin City Council (Home News, October 27th) and most recently from Dr Mary Toomey (November 1st), the periodic flooding in Dalkey Quarry, Co Dublin is a direct result of the upset in the natural ecosystem of this facility. It is very well known, the natural drainage of the land is very dependent on there being a sufficient amount of vegetation and topsoil to soak up the water.
However, this basic fact seems to have escaped Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council (DLRCOCO) which has spent a considerable amount of time and money removing vegetation and topsoil in the quarry to create a gravel track around the entire perimeter of the granite-faced enclosure and which now functions as a man-made river onto Ardbrugh Road. This has resulted in a torrent of water cascading out of the quarry onto Ardbrugh Road and subsequently down Ardbrugh Close, which is directly opposite the quarry entrance, to finish up in the gardens of properties in this development. The water also flows down Ardbrugh Road onto Dalkey Avenue, travelling over most of the drainage grids which are never cleared by DLRCOCO and consequently remain blocked.
Despite numerous requests to DLRCOCO to solve the problem they themselves have created no effective action has been forthcoming. After the recent deluge a massive amount of water cascaded out of the quarry, but still no action has been taken by the local authority.
Ardbrugh Road is currently strewn with loose gravel and stones which have been washed out of the quarry entrance by the torrent of water. A request for this to be cleared was made to the council but no response has been forthcoming. Many photographs of past flooding events have been submitted by e-mail to appropriate officers of the council.
The lesson here is quite simple. Disturbance of a natural ecosystem which has built up over the years and which was previously quite capable of soaking up rain water can result in significant amounts of run-off with nowhere to go, except onto adjacent roads and into private gardens. – Yours etc,