Pinkeen Stream dredged

Pic by Kilcullen Tidy Towns.

The latest stage in the refurbishment of Pinkeen Stream took place yesterday when dredging of the waterway was carried out in association with Kildare County Council, writes Brian Byrne.

Recent work by Kilcullen Tidy Towns and by local resident Dr Jan Baars, an environmental expert, had already cleared a great deal of rubbish which had been dumped in the stream.

Residents in the locality, as well as users of facilities on the Community Centre campus will be pleased that yesterday’s dredging will likely have forced vermin living in the stream to move on.

Pinkeen is listed as one of 24 official tributaries of the 125km River Liffey.

In 2006 there were serious concerns raised about the state of the stream (above), with residents fearing that it was being polluted by sewerage from new developments.

A big cleanup by local residents in April 2008 resulted in a big variety of dumped items being taken from the waterway, including supermarket trollies, lengths of timber, discarded estate agent signs and other detritus.

Two years ago, Kildare County Council undertook a ‘baiting’ programme to deal with a rats infestation. But there have been more reports over this last winter that they were back.