December 27th, 2016 -- Posted in Active, Administration, Fish, Politics, River Basin Management, Threats, Water Directive |
It is important for us to understand the full inadequacies of the process of Granting permission to Irish Water for the New Roundwood Treatment Works. To do this we have launched a Freedom of Information request for all the details surrounding the Jonathan Sexton report. This should provide some interesting reading. It will be at least 4 weeks until we hear back, especially with the Holiday break of 9 days. When (if) we are given the opportunity for an oral hearing, this material will be provided to An Bord Pleanála.
December 17th, 2016 -- Posted in Active, Ecology, Fish, Irish Water, Politics, Polution, River Basin Management, Threats, Water Directive, Wildlife |
With our Appeal going in on Monday to An Bord Pleanála, we have made the best effort possible to save the River Vartry on behalf of all of you who could see that this was the big battle.
Until our Appeal is accepted and we have the file number from An Bord Pleanála, we cannot publish our Appeal but we can give you a few snippets, should you be in any doubt of why we are fighting. In order to make a determination of Environmental Impacts, Wicklow County Council needed to apply “Best Science Available Principle” and for this they asked Jonathan Sexton Executive Scientist – Water and Environment who works for the Wicklow County Council.
Jonathan Sexton produced his first report on 06/11/2016 which was excepted by Tom Griffin, Senior Executive Chemist with minor changes. However unexplainably, a major revision appeared on the 11/11/2016. The major difference was that in the recommendations an important paragraph disappeared. It said “The Applicant shall maintain the current flow regime of leaking water until such time that flow measurements and modelling have been undertaken to establish a suitable environmental flow regime that takes standards into account. The current flow regime shall use flows of water from the Vartry Reservoir to match current leakage flows from the leakage channel from the filter beds and current leakage flows from the overflow weir from the Reservoir.”
We can only applaud Jonathan Sexton for his sound and well founded suggested condition on the planning. We of course, suggested this approach but he recognised that this was the approach to be taken. Unfortunately “someone” did not agree and put pressure on him to remove this because on the version of the 11/11/2016 it was removed. What was added was the statement of Jonathan Sexton “Considering the importance of the proposal in providing secure drinking water supply to a large region, I recommend…”. Clearly he was not fully in agreement with this decision and but complied to the pressure placed upon him. Below is the full text of his recommendation.
Had this been the only issue with this report, it might pass the scrutiny of An Bord Pleanála as without proof that undo influence was placed by Wicklow County Council on an Independent Science Report. However… If you look below you will see that in the public record is a Science Report that has been altered by an “Unknown Hand“ after being published by Jonathan Sexton. This is sloppy and an unacceptable action by a Planning Authority and we claim makes the whole process in doubt. Were it to happen to you or me on planning for our new house, someone would scream. We are screaming that the Planning Permission is Null and Voided by the hacked Science Report and Wicklow County Council cannot be trusted to perform an unbiased Planning Process on this file.
When you look whom has been crossed out by the “Unknown Hand“, it is Inland Fisheries Ireland and ourselves the Local Stakeholders. Is it not surprising that these are the parties that have strongly opposed what is happening and have questioned the wisdom of the Wicklow County Council going ahead without a proper Independent Environmental Impact Assessment. This illustrates their bias against anyone who opposes themselves and Irish Water. This is not a transparent or adequate process.
Read it for yourself and raise this issue as loud and vocal as you can. We need to prove to An Bord Pleanála that it is not just us, but all of the public that want this decision reversed and sent back for proper analysis. Only this will insure the survival of the River Vartry.
December 11th, 2016 -- Posted in Active, Fish, Irish Water, Politics, Polution, River Basin Management, Threats, Water Directive, Wildlife |
We had a very successful meeting on Friday the 9th of December and were joined in the Ashford Community Centre by 84 people with apologies from another 27 that could not make it. Everyone was actively supporting and we raised €2200 to help with our expenses for the fight at An Bord Pleanála. The approach was agreed and we are meeting with the Barrister to produce the final Appeal and request for an Oral Hearing. The total campaign has raised €3450 euro which has been used for the Barrister and two Ecology consultants in preparing the Appeal.
We had the privilege of having 3 Councillors from Wicklow, Jennifer Whitmore, John Snell, and Steven Matthews who’s clarity and contribution was very much appreciated. They too were very concerned about the performance of the Wicklow County Council in granting permission to Irish Water at this time without an Independent Environmental Impact Assessment.
We reiterated that we feel that the Treatment Works needs upgrading but that this can be done without damage to the River Vartry. This is where we differ with Irish Water. To get to this position it requires the technical knowledge and the study of the river and what changes it can absorb and tolerate. This process was not done and the Wicklow County Council granted permission prematurely before anything was completed. This leaves the River in an unprotect position within Irish Water’s control without conditions.
We will be finalising our Appeal with the Barrister this week and asking for an Oral Hearing. One of the grounds for this is of great national, regional or local concern. For this we need your help. Make your voice heard. Contact me Matthew at Rivervartry.com or go to our Crowd Funding page, https://chuffed.org/project/save-the-river-vartry-from-irish-water. Share this via facebook or twitter and the word will get out.
Thanks to everyone for your support.
December 2nd, 2016 -- Posted in Active, Fish, Irish Water, Politics, River Basin Management, Threats, Water Directive |
The latest news is a disaster. Wicklow County Council has shown their lack of concern for the River Vartry and in a foolish moment, decided to grant Irish Water permission. This could be considered shrewd, as they were aware that we would take this to An Bord Pleanála and this way they do not incur the wrath of the Government by doing something against them.
What is surprising is the total lack of concern for the environment by Wicklow County Council, the Government, Irish Water, the EPA and the media. I see articles in the news all about the wonderful plans to spend €250,000,000 on water infrastructure but not a mention of how this might affect the Environment. Irish Fisheries did put in a strong observation in the planning stage but have become uncomfortably silent.
The decision from WCC has only one Condition on Irish Water (other than boilerplate ones, archaeology etc) and that is
“The applicant shall maintain minimum daily compensatory flows of at least 5 Million litres per day in the Vartry River, in accordance with the details submitted on the 3rd of November 2016”. This will enforce on the River 1/3 of the current flow of 15ML per day. As well there is no enforced specification of what this water is. The Treatment Works has a poisonous discharge that can not be dumped in the river, but there is nothing in this condition to say that the 5ML is clean water. The file does contain an unworkable solution for dealing with the discharge of pumping it back over the dam into the reserviour. This we objected to on the basis that it would pollute the top of the reserviour eventually causing the water going to Dublin to be compromised. This solution was never meant to be followed and eventually the discharge will be dumped directly into the River, after it is destroyed from lack of water. This is part of our Appeal to ABP.
Reducing the flow in the river to 1/3 its present state can only be seen in a picture from the top of the Vartry by the reserviour. This is how the whole River will look if this decision is not fought.
To put things into perspective, with a flow of 15ML per day in the end of November 2016 the river above the Weir in Ashford looks like this. This is spawning time and the fish have to pass through this narrow channel.
Imagine now this scene with 1/3 of this water and the fish growing tiny legs to walk up the river. Although I joke to get you to imagine, it is not a joke. This is the true reality behind what is being done by the Government, WCC and Irish Water under the watchful eye of the EPA, Irish Fisheries and other that have not seen the truth. This is an EU protected river and even so, it is being treated like this. We do not what to wait for the “woops, sorry”.
I call this, “Government By Intimidation”. Nothing seems to happen without intimidation. The Government intimidates the County Council “We need housing! Build more houses where they shouldn’t be!”, “Don’t oppose Irish Water!”. The only way forward for ourselves is to use the same tactics and Intimidate the Government by pressing the media and asking all of you to join in our campaign to reach An Bord Pleanála, in force, with many people behind us.
Can you please join our campaign and donate to our Crowd Funding project? We now have to pay a Barrister and several Hydrologist and Hydrogeologist to help us make sure we win at ABP. As well we need a “War Chest” for future fights in the High Court and perhaps the Supreme Court, if necessary.
Help us Fight Irish Water to Save the River Vartry
Thanks for your support and joining us in this fight.
