Councillors cry foul over ‘awful smells’

SHANNON’S waste water treatment plant badly needs upgrading and there are foul odours around the town because of creaking infrastructure, the September meeting of Shannon area councillors heard.
At the meeting, Councillor Gerry Flynn introduced a motion asking for the council to provide a report on the upgrade of Shannon’s waste water treatment plant.
In a report, engineer Sean Ward stated that an upgrade could be some way off.
“Shannon sewerage scheme is on the Government’s Water Services Investment Programme 2010-2012 as a scheme to proceed through planning, the intention being to have all stages of planning the scheme completed before end of 2012, to be ready to go to tender in 2013, subject to approval by the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government. A preliminary report was received in 2008 from Nicholas O’Dwyer and Partners, consulting engineers, which recommended a new treatment plant and upgrading of sewers and pumping stations.”
Councillor Flynn had words of praise for Mr Ward, who he said was “very honest in his appraisal” but said the situation outlined is bleak.
“There are problems here in Shannon. There are capacity issues and the pumps have not been upgraded for many years.”
He wasn’t pleased to learn that the project is to go to tender in 2013. “If it goes to tender in 2013, we might get it in 2020,” he said.
Councillor Flynn said there were serious problems with odours in Shannon this year and that it seems that all the town would have to offer to visitors would be that they would get “stunk out of it”.
He said that the expected delay is “bad news for Shannon and for the development of Shannon going forward”.
Councillor Tony Mulcahy said that there were “awful smells” two to three weeks ago in Shannon. He said that an odour had been in the air outside the town hall on the morning of the meeting.
“When the council were taking over Shannon it was said that the problems were with what was underground and that has come to pass,” he added.
One of the blackspots identified by him is near the Aidan Park traffic lights, close to Inis Ealga.
Councillor Patricia McCarthy said that the issue has become a “hardy annual”, so long has it been a problem. She said that the smell in Shannon two weeks ago was dreadful.
Responding to some of the members’ concerns, engineer Eugene O’Shea said some of the infrastructure in question is at least 40 years old. Referring to the smell close to Aidan Park, he said it occurred as some of the old infrastructure’s usefulness had expired and a section of mains needed to be replaced.
He said he is hopeful the town would receive a better service from contractors now, after further conditions were imposed.
However, he said there is only so much that can be done. “You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear and that’s what we have here,” he concluded.