By Brendan Lawrence
A BALLINKILLEN woman is begging Carlow County Council to stop sending water and sewage from the village down past her family farm.
Ann Cummins says that in 1994 there were new houses built in the village and that ever since then, as more and more houses have been built, she has lived with the nightmarish threat of flooding duringheavy rains.
“I can’t take any more,” said a frustrated Ann. “We have been suffering now for 15 years because of progress. The water system in Ballinkillen couldn’t handle the new houses and now they are putting a massive pipe down to the river and I’m being flooded. We have done a bit of work around the yard here by rising up the yard and shed, but we can’t raise the house. If I get one day of rain, it doesn’t bother me, but if I get three or more days of rain I’m in trouble. Sometimes my house is like a boat. I have to be carried into the house if I have no wellies,” she said.
The stream that passes by the front gate of the Cummins’ house enters the River Dinin just below the house at the Aghnamannogue bridge. Ann believes that when the big river backs up due to the tide coming in at St Mullin’s, then everything backs up to her gate, where it then flows into the yard. In 1995, the Cummins’ home was completely flooded and the family were forced to move out.
“In 1995, we were flooded – the house and the cow house,” recalls Ann. “One of our cows had a calf and it drowned. Since then, we raised the shed and the yard but I can’t raise the house. That night, my son’s toys were floating around his bedroom. The water was up to the letter box on the front door. Now every time it rains heavy, if I’m out, I come home wondering if I have a house anymore,” she added.
Ann is also concerned that there is sewage flowing down past their house in the same pipe as well. Their animals stopped drinking the water some time ago and, according to Ann, nothing grows in the stream anymore. After a recent meeting with staff from the county council, Ann claims she was told that she would not hold up progress in Ballinkillen. “I was told that if I think that Ballinkillen can’t progress because my house floods, then I can think again and that the pipeline was going down whether I liked it or not. I will chain myself to the road before that water comes down here. I need a new house if they are going to let that water down,” she said.
John Carley, director of services at Carlow County Council, says that suggestions of alternative routes for the pipeline by Mrs Cummins and other local people are still being considered. “Carlow County Council carried out treatment work in 2002 and 2003 on the treatment plant in Ballinkillen,” he explained. “We installed a package plant and there have been a number of issues with that plant. We have installed a reed bed and now we are installing a surface water and effluent pipe that will discharge direct to the local stream. We have had a number of suggestions by local people, including Mrs Cummins, some of which are still being examined.
The pipe has been approved by the Southern Fisheries Board and the EPA,” he added. However, Ann Cummins has reported that as of yesterday (Tuesday), work on laying the pipeline had made it as far as her gateway, which is 20 metres from the bridge.