KERRY COUNTY Council has moved to reject claims, outlined by a scientist at a meeting yesterday in Kenmare, that a low-rise earthen dam protecting the town’s main water supply lake, was at risk of breaking and flooding the area.
However the council has stepped up its monitoring of the rubble wall of the dam at the mountain lake of Lough Eirk. The dam or low-rise embankment was constructed in the 1920s.
Further inspections and repairs were carried out last week, and the level of the lake lowered, on foot of the concerns raised by Dr John Skilling, who lives locally.
At an area meeting yesterday of the council in Kenmare, Dr Skilling said he had observed water flowing over the top of the earth-and-rubble 1.5 metre embankment, and seeping from underneath.
He said there was considerable erosion and the dam was at risk of collapse, releasing thousands of cubic metres of water, flooding the valley and the town of Kenmare.
He had engaged two independent engineers who concluded there was a real risk of the dam breaking resulting in major flooding.
However, council spokesman Pádraig Corkery said that over the past 12 months, an engineering consultant had examined the dam.
Lough Eirk, which supplies up to 1,250 cubic metres a day to the town of Kenmare, was a natural bedrock lake, he said.
The embankment had been erected to raise water levels so as to ensure a greater water supply to Kenmare.
“The water level was raised by one metre and the whole lake would not empty if the embankment burst,” he said. “Just one metre would be taken off the top.”