county donegal - overview

Donegal County Council – Presentation to Oireachtas Joint Committee on Environment Transport Culture and Gaeltacht

County Donegal - Overview

•Population 2011 Census 160,927 (+9.3% from 2006)

•The most populous county in the Border Regional Authority area (of Donegal, Sligo, Monaghan, Leitrim, Louth, Cavan) but with the second lowest density (27 persons per sq km compared to national average 52)

•75% of people live in rural areas

•25% live in urban areas

•circa 10% live in large urban areas (Letterkenny(Gateway), Buncrana)


County Donegal - Overview

•>800 people live on offshore islands

•84,356 houses up 20% since 2006

•24,066 vacant houses (28.5%) the second highest % in the country (primarily due to numbers of holiday homes)

•natural increase in the population since 2006 (births minus deaths) 5,507

•88% of households have a piped water supply (public/ group water schemes)


County Donegal – Geography & Environment

•Area of county Donegal 486,091 hectares

•Bigger than the combined areas of counties Cavan, Leitrim, Monaghan

•Entirely within the North Western International River Basin District

•45% is mountainous with the highest mountain Errigal stretching to 782m

•43% is rolling lowland

•45% is arable pastureland

•44% is peat bogs and natural grassland



•Topography



•17% of Donegal is Special Area of Conservation

•5% is Special Protected Area

•25% of Donegal is Natural Heritage Area

•16,000 hectares of National Park

•12 blue flag beaches

•Longest coastline in the country stretching to 1134 km

•Highest sea cliffs in Europe (Slieve League) 600m



•Blue Flag Beaches , Protected Areas, Glenveigh National Park, Towns


County Donegal – Water Infrastructure

•Existing Water Supplies



•Water Management Systems



•Total Length of water mains = 4,366 kms

•Water Treatment Works (WTW) = 73

•Reservoirs = 178

•Pumping Stations = 175

•Water Supply Schemes ranging in Distribution Input (DI) from 150 m3 to 9000 m3/day

•Daily consumption = 60,000 to 65,000 m3/day

•97% of water is from Surface Waters

•3% of water supplied is from Groundwater



•88 Water Sources supplying 73 water schemes of which

•41 no. Public Water Supplies

•25 no. Public Group Water Schemes

•7 no. Private Group Water Schemes

•23.5 million m3 per annum public

•0.5 million m3 per annum private

•4 no. plants > 4,000 m3 per day; 20 plants > 1,000 m3/day

•Circa 70,000 m3 purchased from NI Water annually



•Single Domestic connections = 52,000

•Metered connections > 10,000 on Temetra

•Bulk meters = 967

•Sluice valves = 10,300

•Countywide Telemetry/ SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition system for gathering and analyzing real time data).

•Reported (Service Indicators) UFW (Unaccounted for Water) circa 53% [39% average for top 5 schemes]

•Water Loss (m3/km/hr) 0.4 which is better than the interim target value



•Of the 38 schemes supplying > 100m3/day 74% are more than 30 years old

•Of the 38 schemes supplying > 100m3/day 56% have not undergone any significant upgrade



•Pipe MaterialsCounty Donegal Pipe Material Breakdown

MDPE 0%

HDPE 23%

Ductile Iron 1%Cast Iron 3%Asbestos Cement 9%

uPVC 61%

Unsurveyed / Unknown 3%

uPVC

MDPE

HDPE

Ductile Iron

Cast Iron

Asbestos Cement

Unsurveyed /Unknown



•Pipe Sizes

County Donegal - Breakdown of Pipe Diameter

175mm 2%

25mm 3%

150mm 13%

125mm 3%100mm 39%

75mm 13%

50mm 19%

300mm 1%

250mm 2%

200mm 4%

25mm 50mm

75mm 100mm

125mm 150mm

175mm 200mm

225mm 250mm

300mm 350mm

400mm 450mm

500mm 600mm

700mm 800mm


County Donegal – Drinking Water Regulations - Compliance

•2009 Data


County Donegal – Proposed Water Infrastructure

•Regional Water Supply Study Areas

Lough MourneLetterkennyWS

Inishowen Water StrategyDesertegney/ Lagan/ West & East Inishowen

FanadRegional

WS

CranfordRegional

WS

OwenteskinaRegional

WS

KillybegsWS Ballyshannon

RegionalWS

Frosses/ Mountcharles/Inver/ Eske WS

RossesRegionalWS

LettermacawardRegionalWS

GortahorkFalcarragh

WS


County Donegal – Proposed Water Infrastructure

•Over a period with substantial investment it is possible to rationalise the number of water supply sources/ schemes to less than 20 with considerable improvements in operational efficiency.


County Donegal – Wastewater Infrastructure

Inver

Pettigo

BelleekBundoran

Ballintra

Donegal TownKillybegsKilcar

Carrick

Ardara

Glenties

Dungloe

Ballybofey/ Stranorlar

LiffordMilltown

N'Cunningham

Letterkenny

Kilmacrennan

Milford Rathmullan

BuncranaKerrykeelCreeslough

Falcarragh

CarrigartDunfanaghyMoville

Clonmany

Malin

Derrybeg

Glencolumbkille

Malin Beg

Fintown


County Donegal – Wastewater Infrastructure

•97 wastewater schemes with 105 treatment plants

•23 schemes with current pe (population equivalent) > 1000

•48 have secondary treatment or better

•77% > 20 years old

• > 35,000 Septic tanks


County Donegal – Water Services DBO’s

DBO (Design Build Operate) Contracts in Donegal

•1 Metering and Meter Reading contract €1.0m per annum

•1 Water Supply contract €0.22m per annum

•1 Wastewater Operation Contracts €1.5m per annum

•1 Wastewater DBO contract under construction 2013 operational cost €1.7m

DBO Experience

•High fixed Cost element

•No Local Authority budgetary discretion

•Significant Non-Domestic Borrowings


County Donegal – Water Services DBO’s

Typical Sewerage Scheme DBO (Design Build Operate)

•DBO related capital costs €30.0m

•DCC matching funding €7.5m (25.0%) from own resources (Non-Domestic Loans & General development Contributions)

•€1.7m annual operating cost


County Donegal – Water Services Charges

2011 Non-Domestic Water Service Charges


County Donegal – Immediate infrastructural Needs

•Infrastructural Requirements

•Water Treatment and Trunk Networks €132m

•Water Distribution Networks (water conservation) €64.9m

•Wastewater Treatment and Trunk Networks €186m


Water Services Pricing Policy

‘marginal capital costs’ generally means the cost associated with increasing the capacity of domestic only infrastructure to (i) provide capacity for existing non-domestic users, and (ii) provide spare capacity for future non-domestic and future domestic users.

In practice the marginal capital cost of doubling the capacity of a treatment plant will in general be less than double the capital cost cost of a domestic only plant.



•the non-domestic marginal capital costs to be recovered from the existing normal non-domestic sector by spreading the cost over a suitable period (through borrowings) and recovering the cost as an element of the overall water service charges for non-domestic users. •the spare capacity marginal capital costs (future domestic and future non-domestic) to be recovered from development contributions



Anomalies•Core operational costs have also been rising steadily due to

–increased provision of infrastructure and services, and –new and higher environmental and performance standards. (EPA Wastewater Licensing)

• Therefore the Counties with the greatest requirements for standalone infrastructure, lower population densities, and greatest environmental sensitivity will incur the highest unit operating costs and water services core operational charges.

county donegal - overview

Documents

oireachtas joint committee

environment transport

populous county

water supply schemes

protected areas

national average

glenveigh national park

special protected area25