At a recent meeting of Wicklow County Council, Green Party councillor, Deirdre de Burca questioned the proposed location of a new water resevoir for Enniskerry at Killegar which contains several local dumps, some of them illegal.

De Burca said that the village of Enniskerry desperately needed a new water supply source and that she welcomed any move to address that problem.

However, she pointed out that the proposed 2000m³ reinforced concrete storage resevoir at Killegar was being located in the same immediate area as a number of local dumps.

“I pointed out to the County Manager that the proposed resevoir is in the same immediate area as at least three dumps that I am aware of” says de Burca. “One of these is the illegal dump that was discovered on Redden’s land several years ago. Approximately 8,000-10,000 tonnes of household and other waste were discovered on this site and unfortunately only a very small amount of that waste has been removed as part of the clean-up of the site”.

De Burca says that there is at least one other former illegal dump close to the proposed location of the water resevoir, and also an old municipal dump. “I asked the County Manager whether he was aware of an emerging trend in the council where water resevoirs are now being located in the vicinity of dumps” she says. “I reminded him that the new water resevoir at Glen Ding Blessington was also located next to the illegal dumps on Roadstone’s land”.

The Green Party councillor voted for the water resevoir at Enniskerry because she says that the need for a new water supply for the village is very ‘urgent’. However, she has asked that her concerns be put on record and that the selection of locations for future water resevoirs should rule out any locations that were next to old dumps.

“No local authority in its right mind would choose to locate a water resevoir next to a dump - particularly an unlined, illegal dump” says de Burca. “To have done it once in Blessington was worrying but to repeat the pattern in Enniskerry is really not acceptable” she says.