Next big freeze could be just as bad, council warns

By TONY GALVIN A WARNING has been issued by Galway Co Council to the public that any repeat of the recent record-breaking freezing temperatures will also mean a repeat of problems such as water shortages, burst pipes and damaged property.[private] This stark message was delivered by Jim Cullen, Director of Services for Environment and Water Services, at a meeting of the council on Monday. He pointed out that council staff had worked day and night over the holiday period to tackle the problems associated with the freezing temperatures, but he stated bluntly 'If we get severe cold weather again then it's more than likely it will have the same impact.' He said Co Council crews had repaired approximately 1,200 leaks throughout the county since the crisis began. He paid tribute to the council staff who had worked tirelessly to assist householders in trouble and he was joined in this tribute by a unanimous show of appreciation from the elected members who also paid tribute to the efforts of the staff. Jim Cullen said the night-time temperatures of -15C were compounded when day-time temperatures never got above freezing and offered little opportunity for a thaw and for repair work to be carried out. He noted that in Tuam because of the Big Dig works they were able to gauge that the ground froze to a depth of two feet, an unprecedented situation and the cause of many service pipes being frozen in the ground. The Co Council noted that the water shortage problem was compounded by people leaving their taps running in an effort to prevent domestic pipes freezing. The cold was so severe that the low temperatures caused serious problems with water processing plants at Luimnagh, Headford and Ballinasloe. Equipment malfunctioned because the water being processed was so cold. Jim Cullen pointed out that the demand for water was 30 per cent above normal in most areas during the big freeze but up to 70 per cent up in some locations. The base figure for demand in Tuam is normally 4,380 cubic meters but on St Stephen's Day this demand jumped to 8,158 cubic meters. In Athenry the figure rose from a base level of 1,646 to 4,307 cubic meters. He added that the problems continued and on Monday of this week demand was still 13 per cent above normal. Mayor Jimmy McClearn led the tributes to the workers who laboured for weeks in the most difficult conditions to ensure supplies were restored to homes and businesses as quickly as possible. Cllr Peter Feeney blames much of the disruption on poor building specs which he said allowed service pipes to be placed too close to the surface where they could easily freeze. He called for much more robust building standards to be put in place, pointing out that in one estate of 40 homes in Athenry, 37 homes lost their water supply because of frozen service pipes. He blamed it on water meters being installed too close to the surface. 'They just popped, one after the other,' he said. Cllr Jim Cuddy said that service pipes in Britain had to be at least two feet underground but in all too many cases here they were only about three inches below the surface. Jim Cullen told the meeting that were it not for the council's on-going work to tackle leaks and waste over the past year, then matters could have been a lot worse.[/private]