European Commission may fine State over sewage pumped into rivers and sea

Ireland is to face legal action by the European Commission for failing to build waste treatment places for 38 towns and cities, which are daily pumping thousands of gallons of raw sewage into rivers and the sea.

The case before the European Court of Justice could see Ireland facing millions of euro for failing to meet two deadlines to build or upgrade sewage plants by the end of 2000 and 2005.

Plants in Clonakilty, Cobh, Cork city, Fermoy, Mallow, Midleton, Ringaskiddy, Youghal, Rathcormac, Passage/Monkstown and Ballincollig are listed as inadequate.

Gaoth Dobhair, Killybegs and Ballybofey/Stranorlar in Donegal are poor, along with Arklow, Castlecomer, Dundalk, Enniscorthy, Oberstown and Ringsend, Navan, Athlone, Monksland, Enfield, Longford and Portarlington.

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Treatment plants in Nenagh, Thurles, Roscrea, Killarney and Tralee, Cavan, Clifden, Roscommon town, Shannon town, Tubbercurry in Co Sligo and Waterford city are deemed unsuitable.

The commission said Ireland should have fixed sewage problems for communities with less than 15,000 people by 2000, while larger towns should have been properly served by 2005.

Irish Water estimates that €1.25 billion must be spent on treatment plants by 2021. “It’s fair to say that there has been quite an improvement in the last few years,” Taoiseach Enda Kenny told the Dáil.

Meanwhile, a senior commission official told TDs and Senators that arguments about water charges would not address Ireland’s problems with sewage, or cancer-causing chemicals in drinking water.

Saying that Ireland must spend €13 billion on water services, DG Environment official Aurel Ciobanu Dordea questioned how it could do so from general taxation. “How will this money be produced,” he said.

Heated exchanges

During occasionally heated exchanges before the Oireachtas Committee on the Future of Water Charges, he rejected Fianna Fáil TD Barry Cowen’s contention that Ireland had a derogation. Ireland was not honouring EU water management rules: “How can you say this is not being compromised when so much waste water is untreated?” he said. Scotland treats 95 per cent of its waste water but “Ireland is at 51 per cent”.

However Eoin Ó Broin of Sinn Féin and Paul Murphy of the Anti-Austerity Alliance said Brussels was trying to change its arguments on why Ireland must have charges.

Meanwhile, planning permission for Irish Water’s €1 billion river Shannon/Dublin pipeline will be lodged by the end of the year – which Irish Water says must be built if the capital was not to face water shortages within 10 years.

Jerry Grant, managing director of Irish Water, told the Oireachtas committee that Dublin was using up 40 per cent of the Liffey’s water every day – “the limit of what is sustainable”.

Construction will affect some farms for two years, along with extra time for the land to recover. A Bord Pleanála oral hearing is due in 2019 and construction is scheduled to run between 2021 to 2024.