COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF RATHFARNHAM/TEMPLEOGUE-TERENURE AREA COMMITTEE

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

QUESTION NO. 3

QUESTION: Councillor D. Looney

"To ask the Chief Executive if he is aware of the discharge of pollution which entered the River Dodder from two pipes in the Ballycullen direction at Firhouse Weir in mid-December; to ask what happens when such discharges are reported; to ask if proceedings are initiated against those responsible for such pollution; and to make a statement on the matter?"

REPLY:

The Council was made aware of the incident through this representation and followed up with a social media search to ascertain more information (information found online from the Dodder Action Group). There is no record on the Customer Care system of a public complaint being made at the time this representation was made. All natural water quality complaints and queries which are reported to the Council are logged to the Customer Care system, passed to the appropriate section, and tracked to close out using that system. Persons causing unauthorised discharges to waters are pursued to cease the discharge until water quality standards can be assured. The Council pursues these matters by way of site inspections, letters, emails and statutory enforcement notices.

The discharge location in question was inspected on 21 December 2016 and was observed to conform to normal storm water discharge quality. An inspection of the drainage catchment was performed but a source could not be identified.