Intel Partners With Parks & Wildlife Service On Bog Restoration Project.

Thursday, 20 May 2021 14:00

Image: Poulaphouca Reservoir/Google Maps

It will focus on an area around the Poulaphouca Reservoir

Intel, whose European headquarters are in Leixlip, has partnered with the National Parks and Wildlife Service on a new bog restoration project.

Together, they aim to restore 60 hectares of blanket bog to increase water storage levels in part of the River Liffey headwaters by an expected 50-90 million litres.

These headwaters supply the Poulaphouca Reservoir in Blessington, which is a drinking water source for the Greater Dublin Area.

The bog restoration will also protect biodiversity, improve carbon storage, and is likely to improve water quality.

This public-private project collaboration is one of the first of its kind in Ireland for water restoration and the protection of biodiversity.

Eamonn Sinnott, the General Manager of Intel Ireland says "Water is essential to our manufacturing process. Over the last decades, our sustainable water management efforts here in Ireland have enabled us to conserve over 9 billion litres of water and return approximately 87% of our water back to our communities. Now, we are broadening our focus to achieve net positive water by 2030 through onsite conservation and restoring more than 100% of our water consumption and I am delighted to see part of that effort happening here in Ireland, in the Wicklow Mountains National Park."

The first phase of this project will involve:

Baseline studies, including scoping surveys of potential sites for management in the WMNP and ecohydrological characterisation of selected pilot sites and restoration planning design.

Restoration works, principally re-wetting the bog through drain blocking to raise the lowered water levels. This will provide conditions to enable recovery of the main peat-forming species, especially the Sphagnum mosses.

Pre- and post-restoration monitoring to quantify the project’s impact on vegetation, carbon storage, water levels and any improved water storage capacity in study sites.