Uisce Éireann is moving ahead with a new project to provide a water source for the Eastern and Midlands Region with a series of non-statutory public consultations planned for January.
The company plans to extract water from the Shannon river at the Parteen Basin, and via a new pipeline transport the water to a new Water Treatment Plant near Birdhill and to then distribute the water to a storage facility in Peaumont in Dublin with the capacity for offtakes along the route in Tipperary, Offaly and Westmeath. It will also enable supplies serving Dublin to be redirected back locally in Carlow, Wicklow, Meath and Louth. The proposed pipe line will be 170km in length.
Details of the project are available on the water.ie website and six public engagement events are planned for the month of January including one on January 15th at the Lakeside Hotel in Ballina and January 16th in Nenagh at the Abbey Court Hotel The public information days run from 4pm to 8pm and submissions to Uisce Éireann can be made until March 4th.
The company expects to make a formal planning application to An Bord Pleanála later this year and if approved the construction phase would take between four to five years. The project has an unknown cost estimated between €3B to €10B and faces opposition for a number of reasons including the impact the water extraction will have on the Shannon and it’s catchment area and the existing level of leakage of treated water in the water network in Dublin.
