Councillors look for plans in event of 'catastrophic failure' at Laois substation

Laois councillors demanded to know what plans are in place in the event of ‘a catastrophic failure’ polluting the water supply to 25,000 Laois users. 

The question was posed in a motion at the latest meeting of Laois County Council. 

Councillors Ben Brennan, Padraig Fleming, Aisling Moran and Sinn Fein’s Aidan Mullins jointly asked: "That Laois County Council ask ESB Networks/Eirgrid to show what provisions will be in place for an alternative water supply for over 25,000 people in Laois including homes, businesses, farms, schools, nursing homes etc in the event of a catastrophic failure on site at the Coolnabacky substation as mentioned in the independent risk assessment dated January 2024."

Fianna Fail Cllr Padraig Fleming said the issue of the Coolnabacky substation has been ongoing for 14 years. He said the community came together to highlight their concerns about the location of the station above an aquifer which supplies water to between 20,000 and 25,000 people. 

He claimed the community had been “threatened in the High Court” and he maintained the risk assessment for the project hadn’t gone far enough as it relied on information from the ESB and EirGrid. 

“They didn’t even visit the site,” he said of the people who compiled the risk assessment. He said if anything happened at the substation “large volumes of oil” could pollute the water supply. 

He asked who would be responsible in the event of a catastrophic failure. 

“Irish Water will say the council are responsible for the water under the ground,” he said. 

Cllr Fleming said the a “catastrophic failure” was mentioned in the risk assessment. 

“They put it in. They used those words and that frightened a lot of people,” he explained. 

Cllr Moran, Independent, said the risk assessment was compiled with information from the ESB and EirGrid, “two groups we don’t trust,”  she said as she branded the report a desktop survey. 

Cllr Brennan, Independent, said the 400KV transformers would contain an “unknown” amount of oil.   “There is 25,000 plus people could be at the loss of water,” he said. He asked who would be responsible if anything happened.

“Laois County Council, they seem to be washing their hands of this,” said Cllr Brennan. 

 Cllr Moran asked what would happen if the transformers were struck by lightning. 

Council Chief Executive, John Mulholland, said the developer of the project was not Laois County Council and he would expect that the developer would be responsible.