This article is from page 4 of the 2006-12-05 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
ENNIS Town Engineer Tom Tiernan last night rejected calls from councillors to place tankers on Ennis’s streets in order to provide clean drinking water.
At the council’s December meeting last night, Mr Tiernan said that the provision of tankers “would send out a terrible message”. In response to a call from Councillor Tommy Brennan (Ind) for Clare County Council to provide tankers until the current boil notice was lifted, Mr Tiernan said, “Logistically, it would be a huge operation to undertake.”
Mr Tiernan told the meeting that tankers would normally be provided where there was no public water supply at all, or where there had been a contamination of the supply.
“In the current situation, boiling the water deals with any possible contamination. Providing tankers would be a detrimental step and send out a terrible message.”
Instead, the councillors agreed on a motion by Cllr Tom Glynn (FF) that Clare County Council would fund the purchase of bottled water while the current boil notice remains in place through a receipt system. The matter is expected to be discussed at next Monday’s county council meeting.
A separate motion by Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) that the Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche, carry out an independent inquiry to resolve problems with the Ennis water supply fell, as it did not receive a seconder.
Mr Tiernan said that the current boil notice remained in place as a precaution. He said, “There is nothing wrong with the quality of the water.”
Mr Tiernan said that since the first boil notice was put in place 18 months ago, “there hasn’t been a problem with the water except for a period of two to three days.
He added, “I do accept that there has been a lack of confidence in the water supply.”
Mr Tiernan said that the temporary water filtration plant that was put in place to deal with the water supply was back up and running and that council was currently seeking to have further modifications to the plant.
He said, “There is no doubt that the technology works and there wasn’t a problem with it for the first two to three months.”
Cllr Flynn told the meeting that the permanent water filtration plant may not now be in place until the end of 2008 – one year longer than was at first anticipated.