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Sewerage schemes flushed away by department?

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A NORTH Clare councillor has cried foul over the Department of the Environment’s decision to exclude the Doolin and Ballyvaughan sewerage schemes from its major capital investment programme. This is despite the fact that wastewater from Ballyvaughan village goes into Ballyvaughan Bay untreated.
Councillor Joe Arkins believes the Department of the Environment should take another look at the two schemes.

Clare County Council senior executive engineer, Sean Ward, agrees with local county councillors that a treatment plant is required in Ballyvaughan. However, while both the members and executive can attempt to influence decisions, Mr Ward said the order of priorities for sewerage schemes is determined by the Department of the Environment, in accordance with its circular dated March 20.

 

Speaking to The Clare Champion, Councillor Arkins said the absence of a sewerage treatment plant in Ballyvaughan and Doolin is a worry considering the villages often host over 3,000 people at weekends.

The Fine Gael councillor also said he isn’t happy with the level of information being provided to local councillors in comparison with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

He stressed it is vital the Doolin and Ballyvaughan sewerage schemes are prioritised by the Department of the Environment and Clare County Council.

He submitted a motion requesting an update on the progress of the Doolin and Ballyvaughan sewerage schemes at a recent Ennistymon Electoral Area meeting.

Acting senior engineer, Anthony McNamara, told the meeting the group sewerage scheme of Ballyvaughan, Doolin and Corofin was progressed as a single scheme until councillors passed a motion to remove Corofin from this scheme, to go ahead with the construction of the Corofin Wastewater Treatment Plant and network on a standalone basis in May 14, 2007.

The council included the Doolin and Ballyvaughan schemes separately in its Water Services Assessment of Needs 2009, which was submitted to the department in September 2009. The assessment of needs was reviewed by the department in April 2010 and neither scheme was included in the Wastewater Services Investment Programme (WSIP) 2010 to 2012 for Clare.

A circular issued by the department in March 2011 indicated that due to financial constraints, only a very limited number of schemes could be put forward for inclusion in the programme.

Mr McNamara stated schemes that did not feature in the WSIP 2010-2012 but were included in the assessment of needs were generally excluded if they were “not among the priorities based on EPA reports, were not cited in European Court of Justice Proceedings or included in the programme of measures for the first cycle of river basin management plans, shellfish pollution reduction programmes or plans of the protection of freshwater pearl mussel.

“Wastewater projects that were proposed simply for capacity expansion, which was unrelated to the National Spatial Strategy/developing areas priorities were also generally excluded.

“In light of the above, a submission was not made in respect of the Ballyvaughan and Doolin schemes for the review of the WSIP 2010-2012 by the Department of the Environment, which took place in June 2011. An annual review was not undertaken by the department in 2012,” he stated.

However, the council told the EPA in its Ballyvaughan wastewater discharge licence application that a pollution reduction programme for the shellfish growing waters at Ballyvaughan Poulnaclough Bay has been established by the Department of the Environment in order to protect and improve water quality in the designated growing areas in the bay and, in particular, to ensure compliance with the standards and objectives for these waters.

In its submission to the EPA, the Western Regional Fisheries Board expressed concerns about bacteriological issues.

Although monitoring data on receiving water quality, up to and including 2010, appears to indicate the receiving waters are of high status, with no detectable deterioration in water quality, the council has also admitted the discharge from the Ballyvaughan Sewerage Scheme doesn’t comply with the requirements of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Regulations 2001 to 2004.

However, Mr Ward insists there isn’t a conflict with shellfish regulations, as nothing in the programme justified the authority in terms of what was allowed by the 2011 annual review, to submit Ballyvaughan Sewerage Scheme as a candidate for the restoration to the Water Services Investment Programme.

In the case of Ballyvaughan Poulnaclogh Bay, a characterisation report prepared by the council concluded there were no key pressures, or no potential secondary pressures, on shellfish water quality and apart from stating the general duty of public authorities, it didn’t specify any measures to be taken.

“Even if the Ballyvaughan characterisation report had specified measures relating to wastewater treatment, it still may not have guaranteed that the Ballyvaughan scheme would be restored. The council saw this in the case of Carrigaholt, where the characterisation report specified measures relating to wastewater pollution and we therefore included Carrigaholt Sewerage Scheme in our 2011 review submission but the department didn’t agree to restore it to the WSIP,” explained Mr Ward.

In its application to the EPA on October 8, 2010, the council stated at the time “no additional developments are being permitted in the Ballyvaughan area, which give rise to discharges to the town sewer system. “Individual applications for development in the area will be required to undertake a Habitats Directive Assessment,” it stated.

However, a spokesman for the planning department stated there was no reference to “Planning Permission restrictions” in the context of wastewater in the Clare County Development Plan 2011 to 2011 and the North Clare Local Area Plan 2011-2017.

At the time of going to press, the Department of the Environment had not responded to queries from The Clare Champion.

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