Neutral Citation [2015] IEHC 598 THE HIGH COURT Record No. 2012/129P BETWEEN: UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK – NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND Plaintiff AND THE ELECTRICITY SUPPLY BOARD Defendant JUDGMENT of Mr Justice Max Barrett delivered on 5th October, 2015. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS [Square bracketed numbers in Table of Contents are paragraph numbers ]. CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW. [1]. CHAPTER 2: STATUTORY BEGINNINGS [2]. The Act of 1945. [2]. Preparing and approving schemes. [3]. Executing approved schemes. [4]. Generating and distributing electricity. [5]. Section 28 and statutory immunity. [6]. Section 34 and statutory duty. [9]. Interim Electricity Generation Licence. [10]. CHAPTER 3:THE RIVER LEE AND ITS CATCHMENT. [11]. Source and flow of river Lee. [11]. Characteristics of catchment. [12]. CHAPTER 4: THE RIVER LEE WITHIN CORK CITY. [13]. A city on a floodplain. [13]. The modern city and the river. [14]. UCC buildings. [15]. 2 CHAPTER 5: HISTORY OF FLOODING IN CORK CITY. [27]. CHAPTER 6: OVERVIEW OF THE LEE HYDROELECTRIC SCHEME. [28]. Approval of Scheme. [28]. General description. [29]. Carrigadrohid Dam and Reservoir. [30]. Spillways. [31]. Fish pass. [32]. Inniscarra Dam and Reservoir. [33]. Spillway. [34]. Scour. [35]. Fish pass. [36]. Size of Scheme. [37]. Fresh-water supply. [38]. River-flow levels. [39]. Fishery protection. [40]. Wetland protection. [41]. CHAPTER 7: HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF UCC CAMPUS. [42]. 1845–1972. [42]. Master-plans. [43]. The Development Plan Review (1993). [44]. The Master-plan Review (2004). [45]. History and Development of Tyndall National Institute. [46]. The Buildings Committee. [47]. 3 Previous History of Flooding at UCC. [48]. Mitigation of Flood Risks Known to UCC. [50]. Flood protection and flooding at Glucksman Gallery. [52]. Flood protection and flooding at Western Gateway. [53]. Flood protection and flooding at the Environmental Research Institute. [54]. UCC’s response to the flooding of November, 2009. [56]. Heightened awareness of flood risk. [58]. CHAPTER 8: RESERVOIR TYPES. [59]. Purpose(s) of reservoirs. [59]. Flood-control reservoir. [60]. Hydropower reservoir. [61]. Comparison of flood-control/hydropower reservoirs. [62]. Dual-purpose reservoirs. [63]. The ‘design flood’. [64]. CHAPTER 9: MAXNOL AND TTOL. [65]. MaxNOL defined. [65]. Use of space above MaxNOL. [66]. TTOL. [67]. Is TTOL a level? [68]. Obligation to achieve TTOL. [69]. Some summary conclusions regarding TTOL. [71]. 4 CHAPTER 10: THE LEE REGULATIONS. [72]. Use and substance of operational rules. [72]. The Lee Regulations: overview. [73]. Dam integrity. [74]. Water discharge-levels. [75]. Communication breakdown between dams. [76]. Evolution of Lee Regulations. [77]. General structure of current Lee Regulations. [84]. Summary of staff responsibilities. [85]. Part I (“Regulations for Flood Management”). [86]. Flood periods. [92]. Notifications and warnings. [94]. ESB’s Flood Model. [95]. Flood operations: Carrigadrohid. [97]. Flood operations: Inniscarra. [98]. Falling flood. [99]. Inniscarra tables. [100]. Water Management Guidelines. [101]. The Gearagh Wetlands. [102]. Water abstraction. [103]. CHAPTER 11: HYDROELECTRIC OPERATION. [104]. A natural tension. [104]. Electricity generation versus flood alleviation. [105]. TTOL. [106]. 5 Consequences of preferring hydro-electric generation. [107]. Dam safety. [108]. Acceptance that Lee Dams operate with objective of flood alleviation. [109]. CHAPTER 12: WEATHER, RAINFALL, LEVEL AND DISCHARGE MEASUREMENTS. [110]. Private weather forecasts. [110]. Rain-gauges. [111]. Level and discharge measurements. [112]. Cross-checking and averaging. [113]. Calculation of in-flow. [114]. River-gauging. [115]. CHAPTER 13: A RAINY NOVEMBER. [116]. Rainfall data. [116]. Recorded rainfall. [117]. CHAPTER 14: THE FLOOD EVENTS OF NOVEMBER 2009. [118]. Introduction. [118]. Monday, 16 th November, 2009. [119]. Tuesday, 17 th November, 2009. [129]. Wednesday, 18 th November, 2009. [134]. Thursday, 19 th November, 2009. [140]. Friday, 20 th November, 2009. [218]. 6 CHAPTER 15: DAMAGE DONE TO UCC’S PROPERTY. [240]. Overview. [240]. Castlewhite Apartments. [241]. Connolly Building. [242]. Enterprise and Butler Buildings. [243]. Glucksman Building. [244]. Sports facilities. [245]. Tyndall Buildings. [246]. University Hall Apartments. [247]. Victoria Lodge Apartments. [248]. Western Gateway. [249]. Western Road houses and Ferry Lodge. [250]. CHAPTER 16: ESB’S APPROACH TO DAM SAFETY. [251]. ESB’s hydro-electric portfolio. [251]. Flood Control and Dam Safety Study. [252]. ‘Overtopping’. [253]. Results of Flood Control and Dam Safety Studies. [254]. Dam safety as operated today. [255]. Chief Civil Engineer. [256]. The External Dam Safety Committee. [257]. Hydro Stations Manager and Supervising Engineer. [258]. The Lee Regulations. [259]. 7 CHAPTER 17: GENERAL PROVISION OF INFORMATION BY ESB. [260]. Overview. [260]. Commencement of Dams – 2009. [261]. 22 nd June, 1987. [262]. 22 nd February, 1988. [263]. 21 st March, 1988. [264]. 11 th November, 1993. [265]. Circa. April 2002. [266]. Information provided to local authorities on 19 th November, 2009. [267]. CHAPTER 18: FLOOD WARNINGS. [268]. Duty to warn? [268]. Usefulness and need for warnings. [270]. Flood prediction. [272]. Assumption of responsibility. [274]. A chronology of the flood warnings of November 2009. [275]. Deficiencies in warnings. [276]. UCC’s Response to Warnings Received. [277]. ESB’s 25 contentions. [279]. Some conclusions. [280]. CHAPTER 19: ESB’S FLOOD INUNDATION STUDIES. [281]. Various inundation studies. [281]. [1] River Lee Inundation Study (March 1988). [282]. [2] Carrigadrohid Inundation Study (August 1992). [283]. 8 [3] Cork City Inundation Study (September 1994). [284]. [4] River Lee Levels – Cork City (September 1994). [285]. Interaction with local authorities and others. [286]. Significance of inundation studies. [287]. CHAPTER 20: FLOOD ALLEVIATION EFFECTS OF LEE RESERVOIRS. [288]. CHAPTER 21: CFRAMS AND FLOOD RELIEF. [289]. CFRAMS and Lower Lee Flood Relief Scheme. [289]. Interim flood relief measures. [290]. Significance of CFRAMS, etc . [291]. CHAPTER 22: THE BUSINESS AND BENEFITS OF HYDRO-ELECTRICITY. [292]. Commercial purpose of Lee Dams. [292]. Hydro-electricity and electricity prices. [293]. Scale of revenue earned. [294]. Hydro-electricity and grid system support. [295]. ‘Black-start’ support. [296]. Hydro-electricity generation and CO 2 emissions. [297]. Water-supply. [298]. CHAPTER 23: KEY DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE. [299]. Limited number of key documents. [299]. Interim Electricity Generation Licence granted to ESB. [300]. Lee Dams Publicity Brochure. [301]. 9 The Contribution to Irish Society of Irish Hydro-Electric Dams. [303]. “River Lee: Assessment of dam safety ” (1987). [304]. Internal Paper on “Hydro Generating Plant: Limits on Use of Storage” (1979). [305]. “River Lee Levels – Cork City (Sensitivity to Inniscarra Discharges)” (September 1994). [306]. Report on Management of Lee Floods of February 1997. [307]. Presentation to National Hydrological Conference (2001). [308]. Cork Joint Emergency Group Presentation (2002). [309]. Submission to Review of Government Policy on Flood Relief (2003). [310]. Report of AXA Insurance (2004). [311]. Report on Lee Flood of December 2006. [317]. CIBSE Presentation (2007). [319]. Lee Stations Presentation to UCC BSc Environmental Studies Group (2007). [320]. Note during Hydrometric Review done by OPW (2007). [321]. Dam Safety Presentation to the OPW (2009). [322]. ESBI Reports on Lee Flood Events of November 2009. [323]. CHAPTER 24: EXPERT EVIDENCE. [326]. CHAPTER 25: MR SHIBATANI’S EVIDENCE. [327]. Description of expert and overview of evidence. [327]. Multi-purpose or single purpose? [328]. Water-levels (rule curves). [329]. Flood-damage reduction. [330]. Management of the flood events of November 2009. [331]. [1]. Static water levels. [332]. 10 [2]. ‘Empty space’ failures. [333]. [3]. Reliance on prescribed actions. [334]. [4]. Specificity in the Regulations. [336]. [5]. Transparency in decision-making.[337]. [6]. Non-compliance with ESB’s operating levels. [338]. [7]. Tie between prescribed water/discharge levels. [339]. [8]. Reactive decision-making. [340]. [9]. High refill potential. [341]. [10]. Quick reduction of water storage. [342]. [11]. ‘Ramping-up’. [343]. [12]. Operational/institutional failings. [344]. [13]. Tide and storm surges. [345]. Warnings. [346]. Alternative management actions. [347]. Hydrometric information. [348]. River-gauge failings. [349]. Reverse routing. [350]. Hydrometric data that should have been used. [351]. CHAPTER 26 : MR BENN’S EVIDENCE. [352]. Description of expert and summary of evidence. [352]. CHAPTER 27 : MR COWIE’S EVIDENCE. [353]. Description of expert and summary of evidence. [353]. ‘Design flood’-focus of Lee Regulations. [354]. 11 Practical application of abstract design. [355]. Choice of spillway over reduced water-levels. [356]. Alternative flood-gate operation. [357]. Conjunctive use of dams. [358]. Greater discretionary powers for staff. [359]. CHAPTER 28: MR FAULKNER’S EVIDENCE. [361]. Description of expert and summary of evidence. [361]. [1] General characteristics of November 2009 flood. [362]. [2] Foreseeability of November 2009 flood. [363]. [3] Management of November 2009 flood. [364]. [4] Alternative actions available. [365]. Available data. [368]. [1] Rainfall data. [369]. [2] River data. [370]. [3] Tide-level data. [371]. [4] Reservoir-level data. [372]. [5] Reservoir discharge data. [373]. [6] Reservoir in-flow data.