Council urged to build new wastewater treatment plant for Galway City

From this week’s Galway City Tribune – An Taisce has urged City Hall to immediately begin preparation of a planning application for a new wastewater treatment plant like Mutton Island on the city’s east side.

The environmental watchdog said councillors will have to agree on a location for a new sewage treatment plant, and planning has to start now.

Peter Butler, Chairman of the An Taisce Planning Committee, told Galway City Tribune that the European Commission could take legal action against Ireland if wastewater – a mixture of grey water and sewage (faecal matter and urine) – continues to flow into the sea, due to system capacity issues.

It comes as residents in Bearna have complained to Galway County Council over fears that a sewage pump station at Seapoint could be leaking.

Residents wrote to County Hall after workers confirmed that the pumping stations in recent weeks could not handle the volume of wastewater and rain that needs to be pumped to Mutton Island.

Residents have been informed that the excess sewage is being extracted from the pump stations using trucks.

“We want to make sure that a catastrophic leakage situation is avoided. This station is not fit for purpose with the amount of trucks coming every time there is heavy rain,” residents told County Council officials.

Locals said they were concerned that more development planned for the village could further overload the pump station.

Mr Butler said Bearna’s problem was connected with problems identified last year when wastewater was recorded seeping into the bay.

“Mutton Island is a very well run treatment centre. The problem is when it can’t handle the capacity that’s going to it, the system falls apart somewhere before Mutton Island,” he said.

(Photo: A truck emptying excess sewage from the treatment station at Seapoint, Bearna. Credit: Cáit Noone).

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