OPW paid €20,000 in compensation to Bandon Angling Association for flood relief works
Details of a second compensation claim by the angling club were not revealed by FOI.
€20,000 was paid to the Bandon Angling Association (BAA) due to “disruption to spawning which will affect the river’s stock as a whole,” during the OPW’s tender and procurement process for the Bandon Flood Relief Scheme, a Freedom of Information (FOI) request has revealed.
Compensation was paid in spring 2016 to the local angling club because it was “highlighted in the EIS” that fish stocks would be lost during the OPW’s (Office of Public Works) multi-year project, designed to protect the West Cork town from flooding, an internal letter between OPW staff said.
In October 2019, representatives of BAA wrote to the contractor and made a claim for further compensation resulting from outstanding issues relating to the flood relief works.
The amount of further compensation sought by BAA was redacted in the FOI return issued to Tripe + Drisheen and whether it has been paid is unclear.
€80,000 bill to fix the fish pass
When the fish pass constructed as part of flood relief works malfunctioned this spring, trapping migrating salmonids, the OPW paid €80,000 for the installation of a row of large boulders to solve the problem, the records also show.
Contractor McGinty & O’Shea was paid €36,250 to carry out the repairs. The total of €80,000, included materials costs, the engagement of a company to carry out the assessments and a fisheries scientist.
Further works are now expected to take place in the summer of 2022 as gravel installed as part of the flood relief works was washed away in the first flood following the official finish of the flood relief scheme, which was projected to cost €16 million but which has cost €31.4 million to date, according to government figures.
Past controversies
The Bandon Flood Relief Scheme, part of a €1 billion programme of nationwide OPW flood relief programmes which Tripe + Drisheen have covered here and here, has been the source of several controversies.
In 2017, a “haul road” created for access to the river drained the water away from an area of the river, trapping and killing fish and resulting in the IFI (Inland Fisheries) taking a court case against contractors Byrne Looby Partners, Wills Bros Ltd and Rivus Ltd.
In 2018, the construction of the fish pass, which is the largest such structure in Europe and which locals jokingly call “the whale pass,” was hailed as “butchery” and “the most expensive and destructive option” by local environmental consultants.
Just months later, environmental group Friends of the Irish Environment threatened legal action against the OPW in a bid to stop the works.
Some locals were incensed to see contractors driving diggers and other machinery up and down the gravel river bed, which is home to young and eggs from a variety of fish and other aquatic species.
Some were also concerned that the quantities of silt being produced would have knock-on impacts on the endangered fresh-water pearl mussels that live in the Bandon river basin.
Compensation
Email threads seen in the return dating back to 2015 seem to show mounting frustration amongst club representatives, with requests for updates from the OPW and requests to view details of the contractor’s plans.
In early 2016, a sum of €19,500 was approved as compensation for the club. An initial FOI request to see the amount paid to BAA was refused, but was granted on appeal.
In October 2019, representatives of BAA wrote to Byrne Looby, the consultant engineers for the flood relief works, and made a claim for further compensation.
The club cited “reduced tourism and reduced guiding opportunities,” and the loss of at least four years’ fishing, as well as ongoing dangers accessing the new riverbanks, in their claim for further compensation.
“Fishing for the most part was not possible at any time during August and September 2016, for the summers of 2017 and 2018 as fishery was closed and our open fishery downstream was impossible to fish due to high silt levels in the water,” a BAA representative wrote in the email seeking further compensation. “Fishery closed also in 2019 and most likely 2020 due to impact of works upstream, siltation, disturbance etc.”
The amount of compensation being sought was redacted but BAA said they had “enhanced six pools upstream of Bandon town in 2015 for €60,000. What we have lost is worth much more than this.”
Accessing the river a “significant injury risk”
Dating back to 2015, a club representative had repeatedly requested updates and had asked to see the contractor’s plans, but this was refused. The same representative warned that access to fishing spots along the riverbanks may be adversely affected by the flood relief works.
In 2019, several anglers who are BAA members complained to the OPW of “seriously high levels of health and safety issues” with the post-works riverbanks.
“I immediately had to face a climb down of approximately three feet, with loose rocks top and bottom, which I stumbled down to get to the river,” one fisherman reported in a series of emails forwarded to the OPW by the BAA.
“On the 29th September I was given the opportunity to fish the area of the river below Bandon town which had been dredged and subsequently restored,” another wrote. “Entry was gained via the access point above rough hole. Initial observations (sic) was how much the level of the river had been dropped. What once was 2-3 ft below the bank level was now more than 6ft down. It is plainly obvious that this presents a significant injury risk to anglers.”
“My recommendation is the entire fishery down there not be opened to Bandon Angling members or visitors until it is completely rectified by OPW and their engineers,” a club representative said.
“Unfathomable” month-long delay to “urgent” fish pass repairs
Frustrations reared their head again in spring 2021 with the failure of the fish pass: records show that the BAA pleaded with the OPW to take urgent action in March, when they discovered the fish pass was trapping fish.
However, a delay of nearly a month ensued.
On the sixth of April, a member of the club emailed OPW staff saying it was “unbelievable to think we are now in this current situation where fish cannot migrate up a fish pass and for the last month nothing has been done on the ground to rectify it” and warning of “disastrous ecological consequences” if no action was taken.
“BAA have only received updates with regards to meetings and nothing else,” the club member wrote. “From the day of conception, the design of this fish pass has been questioned by many due to drastic re-designs and cost of taxpayers money. At the first sign of a big flood, it has failed within 3 years. One would have thought the fish pass was designed to withstand a flood of this size.”
The following day an OPW staff member responded briefly to say that he was “fully aware of the urgency of the situation” and that he had been to see the site and was working on a solution.
A further twelve days then passed.
Confidence in the OPW at a “complete low.”
On April 19, the BAA representative again emailed the OPW to ask for urgent action. “We urge you to take action to rectify the situation as soon as possible,” he wrote. ”It is completely possible for works on an interim solution to be undertaken now, without any delay.”
“We have repeatedly emailed you all to keep up a line of contact and everyone involved in BAA has been left completely frustrated with the situation to the extent where confidence in IFI and OPW is at a complete low. It really is unfathomable.”
The OPW staff member responded to say there was “a lot of work ongoing” in deciding on and sourcing materials and conducting appropriate assessments. Three days later the BAA yet again asked for an update.
The urgent works were finally completed during the first week of May. The solution, which comprised “large boulders placed across the fish pass to create pools from which the fish can pass with greater ease,” cost €80,000 in total, the FOI records revealed.
Neither the OPW nor Bandon Angling Association had responded to follow-on queries by the time of going to publication, clarifying if a second compensation took place, how frequently the OPW has provided compensation in the course of its flood relief works and other questions.
We will publish a follow-up story with further information.
Fish and other aquatic stocks taking a hammering in Ireland at the moment, with the huge number of ineffective fish and eel ladders, and the recent spill on the Glore river, a tributary to the Moy, one of the most famous salmon rivers in the world. The chemical release (probably) from a waste water treatment plant could easily happen in Fermoy or other towns with outdated treatment systems. We talk about the cost to human livelihoods. But the real issue is that this is ecocide - the killing, through either neglect, ineptitude or corruption, of ecosystems and species other than humans, but upon whose health and wellbeing our own depend.