The controversial Mutton Island waste water treatment plant in Galway is to be operational before the end of this year, but already it has prompted disagreement about the development of the city and county.
In advance of the commissioning of the plant, the Fine Gael TD for Galway West, Mr Pádraic McCormack, has called for the villages of west Galway including Moycullen, Barna and Spiddle to be connected to the scheme on environmental grounds.
But opposition has come from the Galway branch of An Taisce whose chairman, Mr Derrick Hambleton, says the danger of connecting these villages is that they would succumb to major development pressure and become nothing more than dormitory towns for Galway city.
The controversy is the latest twist in the Mutton Island saga which saw European aid for the project being lost after the EU complained to the Irish Government about its location opposite the Claddagh in Galway Bay. The offshore location required a causeway to be built out to the island.
The European Commission made it known that it considered Mutton Island the wrong place for the project. When it was nevertheless approved by the then minister for the environment, Mr Brendan Howlin, in January 1996, the cost was set at £23 million (€39 million) and it was hoped the project would attract 85 per cent cohesion funding. However, within one month, the European Commission said it would not support the project.
The Supreme Court finally dismissed a case taken by the Save Galway Bay group in March 1998 and construction of the plant got under way in May of that year.
However, with just months to go before the opening of the plant, controversy has erupted again. Commenting on the situation to The Irish Times yesterday, Deputy McCormack said the ground in west Galway was not particularly conducive to septic tanks and for environmental reasons the three villages should be connected to the system.
He said Lough Corrib, which is close to Moycullen, supplies drinking water to the city and about half of the county and for this reason alone, Moycullen should be connected into the mains drainage scheme.
He added that Moycullen, Spiddle and Barna had dedicated areas earmarked for expansion in the county development plan, and the extension of the sewerage infrastructure would facilitate this development.
"It would allow expansion of the villages rather than isolated, scattered houses," he said.
Deputy McCormack said that the population of Galway stood at about 66,000, and increased by 15,000 students during term time, and rose to about 100,000 during Galway Race Week. It was, he said, not sustainable to continue to dump those levels of sewage into the sea.
However, Mr Derrick Hambleton of An Taisce criticised the planned connection of the villages into the scheme, saying they would simply be developed for commuter housing until the sewerage scheme was at capacity again.
Mr Hambleton said the calls for the connection were coming as Galway was preparing a revision of its development plan, and there was a danger of suburban sprawl.
According to Mr Hambleton, the rising population figures indicated that an extension to the capacity of Mutton Island would be necessary "and that is being talked about even before we have the existing capacity connected", he said.
