Residents prepared to face jail to block council’s drinking water pipeline
Locals in Pallaskenry insist the proposed Limerick pipeline will carry harmful material.
Villagers want to hold on to an existing local supply and are fighting a connection to the Deel River which, they claimed, remained badly polluted.
Group spokesman Dan Foley said locals enjoyed “pure, clean water” from the nearby Bleach lake for over 50 years.
He said: “Limerick County Council are now forcing us to switch to a water supply from one of the most polluted rivers in the country.”
Members of the group have mounted a local picket to stop work on the water pipeline.
They say they would prefer to be locked behind bars in jail rather than drink water from the River Deel.
Mr Foley said: “The river is floating with dead animal carcasses, human excrement, fish kills and rubbish.”
He said there was only one pollution scare in 50 years involving their current supply.
“The county council would not answer us when we asked how many times the River Deel has been polluted during this time,” said Mr Foley.
A spokesman for Limerick County Council said the present water supply does not have the capacity to sustain local development and is hindering the granting of planning permission for new houses in the area.
The spokesman said a pollutant could cause greater problems in a local supply, such as the one in Pallaskenry, as it comes from a lake.
“If a pollutant enters a river, it passes off shortly because of the flow. But a lake source is relatively stagnant and a pollutant could cause havoc there,” he said.
Contractors have just commenced laying the pipeline for the new supply, but the work has not yet reached a “White Line” where the action group have mounted their picket.
Mr Foley, aged 64, said: “The time for talking is over. If all else fails, like the men in Mayo we are prepared to go jail to protect what we have and what the local people want.”
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