Major flooding risk study ongoing in east Meath

A major study on flooding risk in the Fingal East Meath area was the subject of a presentation to councillors at the monthly meeting of the Slane Electoral Area Council of Meath County Council last week. The main objectives of the Fingal East Meath Flood Risk Assessment and Management Study are to identify and map the existing and potential future flood hazard risk areas within the study area and build the strategic information base necessary for making informed decisions in relation to managing flood risk. It also aims to identify viable structural and non-structural measures and options for managing the flood risks and prepare a flood risk management plan for the study area, and associating strategic environmental assessment that sets out the measures and policies, including guidance on appropriate future development, that should be pursued by the local authorities, the OPW and other stakeholders. A council official, Joe McGarvey, told councillors that the plan would feed into a number of key stages of the project, notably the hydraulic modelling and the flood risk assessment. Specialists will carry out channel and structure sectional survey. Surveying equipment will be used to gather detailed measurements of the shape of river channels and any structures located in the river channel such as bridges or weirs. The information will be gathered at regular intervals along the river channels in the form of cross sections. The watercourses that are understood to give rise to the existing or potential future flood risk within the catchment - such areas would include existing towns and villages and other areas subject to flooding and for which significant development is anticipated - are defined as high priority watercourses. The channel and structure cross sectional survey commenced last year. Mr McGarvey asked landowners to allow surveyors onto land to carry out the survey but said that access inside houses or buildings would not be required. Information will also be gathered on flood defences, including flood walls, embankments, bridges and piers along the rivers and coast. Data is input, stored and analysed in the flood defence asset database, a new software tool developed by Halcrow as part of the Lee Catchment Flood Risk Assessment and Management Study. This survey started in August last year and is almost complete, with 27 kilometres of river channel assets and 10km of coastal assets being surveyed. Groups or organisations interested in gaining information on the study can visit www.Fingaleastmeathframs.ie Cllr Jimmy Cudden said that, some years ago, when he was a member of the Delvin Drainage Forum, he knew there was a fund in existence for cleaning up rivers. He asked if the fund was still in existence. He said that trees and branches were often swept into the river Nanny at Kilsharvan and this would add to flood risk. Engineer Jim Colwell said there was a small fund in existence for this purpose but, to his knowledge, it was very small. Cllr Cudden was supported by Cllr Ann Dillon Gallagher when he raised the issue of flooding on the Duleek-Julianstown road which had recently been reconstructed. He said that, before the reconstruction was carried out, there was an area which had always been prone to flooding but the situation was much worse now and a number of householders were affected. Cllr Tom Kelly proposed that the council write to the OPW to have the Nanny River channel cleaned up.