South Galway Floods Update Nov 2023

Flooding in Midleton, Cork after storm Babet

A wet October brought early winter storms like Babet which brought significant flooding to Midleton in Cork. This was followed closely by storm Ciarán which brought flooding to Carlingford, Lough and Wexford.  At the winter storms roll in, the South Galway landscape is getting extremely wet and waterlogged and the Turlough’s are filling up. And now storm Debi is passing through.

Coole Lake, which is a key flooding decider in South Galway is well up at the moment.  According the groundwater monitoring station,   it’s currently at 10m (above sea level) which is not uncommon but it’s still rising from the water in the catchment.  While this is 7m above its summer level, it’s still 4.7m off its peak flood. However as we are only just starting the winter season, it’s not a good sign that the levels are this high already.   In most winters Coole Lake will get above the 10m but its usually after January. 

It’s looking rainy over the coming weeks and Met Eireann is predicting “wetter than normal conditions are likely across Ireland during November, December and January. Between 5 and 25mm above average rainfall amounts are possible in November and December, whereas January will possibly receive rainfall amounts nearing the average.”

South Galway Flood Relief Scheme

The key focus of the current project is that the design scheme is being finalised hand Environmental Impact Assessment Reports (EIAR) and (NIS) are being worked through.  There are still investigations on-going.

The cost/benefit analysis is also being updated based on latest data. The draft EIAR is scheduled to be completed before Christmas and will be submitted to the OPW for review.  Once finalised and with positive outcomes,  the project will be going into Public Exhibition in Q1 2024.

While it is likely that the project costs have increased due to the inflation,  the South Galway Flood Relief committee (SGFRC) has requested that the benefits/savings also are adjusted in line with inflation. On Tuesday 20th July, this year, OPW Minister Patrick O’ Donovan met with the South Galway Flood Relief committee (SGFRC), in Gort and reaffirmed his commitment on flooding solutions for South Galway. Please continue to highlight the criticality of this flood-relief solution to our public representatives to ensure there is continued Government support for this solution.

The issue  with the M18 culverts is being managed between Galway County council and TII but it is not  envisaged that the cost of the M18 culvert works will impact the outcome of the Cost-Benefit Analysis. 

David Murray

Note : Several South Galway Turloughs and river levels are monitored hourly see South Galway Water Monitoring