Water

To allow safe access to the ore underground it is necessary to dewater the mine and this results in a lowering of the groundwater table in the immediate surrounds of the mine.

To compensate for this lowering of the groundwater table, Galmoy mine previously successfully operated a replacement water supply scheme during the life of the mine to supply water to those people impacted by dewatering (and indeed to supply a large number of people unaffected by dewatering activities).

The scheme developed by Galmoy has been taken over by Irish Water (Uisce Éireann) and continues to operate successfully. While SRL is confident the scheme with its existing wells could provide sufficient water during the new life of the Galmoy mine, the company has agreed with Irish Water to provide additional back up wells further to the west of the mine, further from the dewatering activities, to provide additional assurance and comfort to Irish Water.

All water extracted from the mine will be treated to the highest standards to ensure compliance with the Environmental Licence issued by the EPA, and to ensure that there is no negative impact on the receiving river. 

A state of the art mine water treatment plant is being built, which has been designed to treat all of the water that the mine will encounter, with capacity to spare.