Irish Water Pledges Wastewater Clean-up Within Three Years

Irish wastewater treatment infrastructure will be fully in place and contaminated sites cleaned up within the next three years, according to Irish Water.

Seán Laffey, the head of asset management with the state utility, said it is committed to having all of the contaminated sites treated by the end of 2021.

This follows a finding by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that the pace of improvements to Ireland’s wastewater treatment infrastructure is falling far short of requirements.

It has initiated seven prosecutions against Irish Water over sewage discharges over the past 10 months. Irish Water was fined €13,600 for discharge of untreated sewage from a pump station in Cork City that caused a fish kill, and €9,700 for a similar discharge in Balbriggan-Skerries, Co Dublin. It was fined over €30,000 for failing to carry out upgrades to treatment plants in Athenry, Co Galway; Boherbue, Co Cork; and Drumcollogher, Co Limerick.

In a statement, Irish Water said the EPA report showed the size and scale of the challenge faced by the company in meeting the demands of decades of under-investment in wastewater infrastructure. “This is a key element of the infrastructure challenge that Irish Water, in 2015, estimated would cost €13bn and require large scale investment over several investment cycles,” said Irish Water.

In its 2016 Urban Waste Water Treatment Report, the EPA said sewage treatment at 50 of Ireland’s 185 largest towns and cities is failing to prevent pollution and protect public health.

It comes 26 years after EU standards were set and 12 years after the deadline for complying with them.

Irish Water has estimated that it will cost up to €13bn to implement the necessary changes. Mr Laffey said the utility is quite confident of meeting that deadline and takes full responsibility for failures highlighted in the EPA report.

Read full article: Irish Examiner

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• Raw Sewage
• Reclaimed Wastewater
• Sewage Treatment
• Industrial Wastewater Treatment
• Quality
• Wastewater Treatment
• Wastewater Collection
• Water Quality
• Sewage
• Quality Maintenance
• Waste Management