Irish Water is working in partnership with Clare County Council to end the discharge of untreated wastewater to the River Fergus from the Clarecastle area.
At an information event on Wednesday, May 16, between 4pm and 8pm at the Old Clarecastle National School, Irish Water will unveil its plans to stop the discharge of the equivalent of 1,600 wheelie bins of untreated wastewater into the River Fergus every day from the public sewer network in Clarecastle.
The plan includes the construction of a new rising main and upgrades to an existing pumping station to take wastewater from Clarecastle to the Clareabbey Wastewater Treatment Plant where it can be treated before being returned safely to the environment.
“The provision of a new sewerage scheme for Clarecastle will help to improve water quality in the river, enhance of the area’s amenity value and will act as a platform for social and economic development. The project will also help ensure that the water quality standards set out in relevant legislation will be achieved,” said Joe Kennedy, Irish Water’s infrastructure regional lead.
The project is expected to get underway with site investigation works in the coming months. Following the appointment of a contractor, the main construction work is expected to get underway in Spring 2019 and will take about six to nine months to complete.
Prior to the selection of a contractor, Irish Water will work with Clare County Council’s Roads Section to put a traffic management plan in place to ensure that any disruption resulting from this essential project will be kept to a minimum.
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.