New wastewater rules to affect one-off houses

COUNCILLORS IN Ireland’s least populated county say families will be driven off the land by new rules on wastewater disposal which will mean that only 15 per cent of  planning applications for one-off houses will succeed.

Members of  Leitrim County Council have asked for a meeting with Taoiseach Brian Cowen to discuss the implications  of  the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) new code of practice for wastewater treatment and disposal for single rural houses .

Martin Dolan, director of services with Leitrim County Council, recently told members that  based on previous planning files,  only 15 per cent of  applications for new single houses  in rural areas would succeed  under the code which came into effect on January 8th.

Fine Gael Cllr Enda McGloin said the new rules which will require percolation tests to assess the ability of soil to absorb water, would hit Leitrim harder than many other  counties given the poor quality of the soil and the fact that the county has a population of under 30,000.

Mr McGloin said he accepted the new rules come in the wake of a reprimand by the European Court of Justice  for not properly implementing EU rules on waste water disposal in rural areas.

But he said it was wrong to impose a blanket solution for the entire country .

“I am concerned that there is a green vision being imposed which is pushing people to live in towns and villages and which will see vast rural areas left devoid of people and handed over for forestry or wildlife habitats”.

Mr McGloin said that it was unfair to expect most of rural Leitrim to become “a type of national park” when there had been a longstanding tradition of people living and farming in the countryside.

Mr McGloin raised the issue after being made aware of a farmer’s son who was refused permission for a house on the family land under the new wastewater rules.

The EPA has pointed out that when on-site wastewater disposal systems fail to operate properly they threaten public health and water quality. In a report the EPA said that when domestic wastewater is not absorbed by the soil it can form stagnant pools on the ground surface. Humans who come in contact with the wastewater can be exposed to pathogens, the EPA warned. It also warned of the dangers of inadequately treated wastewater contaminating drinking water supplies.

Mr Dolan confirmed that two thirds of planning applications now being received in Leitrim were for single houses. He said that the new regulations were now “the law of the land” and would be implemented.