Upgrade of wastewater plant sought

Response Engineering Limited (REL), which operates the Shannon Airport Wastewater Treatment Plant (SAWTP) has applied to Clare County Council to review its license concerning the upgrading of the plant to treat leachate coming from the Gortadroma landfill in Limerick.

 

REL is confident that it can maintain the current discharge standards and treat leachate, which is being transported to Kerry and Galway for treatment.

According to REL, the existing plant at SA is designed to cater for a population equivalent of 5,000 people.

REL operation and finance manager, Neil Ronan, stated in a letter to Clare County Council that, based on current figures and future projections for the airport, the plant is severely under-loaded.

Operating at 20% of designed biological load, he noted the plant has the capability to treat imported waste without compromising on the ability to treat waste generated at the airport.

“We propose to modify the plant to be capable of accepting leachate and industrial waste, buffer this waste, pre-treat in separate aeration tank and feed to the treatment plant over a designated period of time,” he stated.

A spokesperson for Shannon Airport Authority said this matter will be reviewed following the outcome of the local authority’s decision.

Limerick County Council has confirmed most of the leachate generated at Gortadroma Landfill is treated on site and disposed of locally under EPA licence to the White River.

However, senior engineer Tom Tarpey acknowledged surplus leachate generated during periods of prolonged heavy rainfall or periods when the Gortadroma treatment plant is not operational are treated by external wastewater treatment plants at a variety of locations.

The details of agreements on leachate disposal are considered commercially sensitive and therefore will not be disclosed.

It is anticipated that waste collection operators will source other landfill outlets elsewhere in the country as an alternative to Gortadroma once it closes. All of the main collectors are aware of the proposed closure of the landfill at this stage.

Some have already diverted waste to the thermal treatment plant in Meath or have started exporting waste for thermal treatment outside of the state. In addition to this, the ongoing development of segregated collection systems, materials sorting facilities and organic waste treatment facilities will provided additional capacity for dealing with collected waste in the future.

“Leachate generated by waste deposited in future at other landfills will obviously be a matter for the operators of those landfills. The bulk of the leachate produced at landfills comes from the active or uncapped cells.

“It is expected that leachate production at Gortadroma will greatly reduce once the landfill is closed and the final cell is capped and that the on-site treatment plant will be capable of dealing with all leachate produced from the closed cells.

“The proposed closure of Gortadroma Landfill and other landfills elsewhere in the country is a direct consequence of national and EU policy on diversion of waste from landfill generally. A huge amount of effort has gone into the diversification of waste disposal options in the past 10 years.

“A wide range of alternatives to landfill have been developed and will continue to be developed as the move away from landfill continues,” Mr Tarpey stated.