CITY TRIBUNE
Mutton Island clogged up with 100 tonnes of wet wipes each month
Around 100 tonnes of wet wipes and other sanitary items – not designed to be flushed down the toilet – are being removed from the Mutton Island Sewage Treatment Plant every month.
The equivalent of eight double-decker buses, the comparison was put forward this week by Irish Water for the launch of this year’s ‘Think Before You Flush’ campaign in Galway City in conjunction with Galway City Council and Clean Coasts.
This year, the campaign is focusing on ‘the West’ – which has been rebranded as the ‘West End’ by local businesses.
A recent survey by B&A (Behaviour and Attitudes) found that almost 20,000 people living in the city regularly flush wet wipes and other sanitary items down the toilet.
“With the city getting ready for its annual influx of tourists and staycationers alike, businesses in the area are working together to spread the important ‘Think Before You Flush’ message as a B&A survey finds that one in four adults admit to flushing items down the toilet that are known to cause blockages in our wastewater network and treatment plants. That’s close to 20,000 people in Galway City alone,” a Council spokesperson said.
In the West End, the campaign is also encouraging the public and businesses to ‘Think Before You Pour’, and reduce the amount of Fats, Oils and Grease (FOGs) being poured down the sink.
Louise Dwyer of Irish Water said: “FOGs are liquid when poured, but they cool and harden as they travel along the pipe network and can cause blockages in our homes, businesses, the public sewer network and wastewater treatment plants.
“This can even lead to overflows of sewage in our communities and pollution in our waterways. When FOGs combine with wipes and other sewage related litter such as hair and dental floss fatbergs can form. Irish Water clears hundreds of blockages including fatbergs from the wastewater network every week. Approximately eight out of ten blockages are caused by inappropriate items being flushed down the toilet combined with FOGs.”
In Galway, Irish Water is also working with food service establishments including restaurants, takeaways and establishments where food is prepared to provide advice on best kitchen management for the prevention of FOG blockages and to ensure that they have a Fats, Oils and Grease Trade Effluent licence in place.
“The impacts of flushing the wrong things down the toilet and pouring FOGs down the sink are stark, as we are still removing hundreds of sewer blockages from our network every month.
“Mutton Island wastewater treatment plant is our largest treatment plant in the West. Close to 100 tonnes of wipes and other items are removed from the screens at the plant every month, that is the equivalent of 8 double decker buses of foul material that needs to be disposed of. This season, ‘Think Before You Flush’ and ‘Think Before You Pour’ and make our beaches and local environment cleaner and safer places to visit.
“Removing blockages can be a nasty job, sometimes workers have to enter sewers to remove blockages with shovels. Some blockages can be removed with jetting and suction equipment.
“I’ve seen pump blockages that workers have had to literally clear by hand in order to get the pumps up and running again in a race against time to avoid sewage overflows to the environment.
“In Galway City our message is simple, only the 3 Ps – pee, poo and paper – should be flushed down the toilet. All other items including wet wipes and other sanitary products should go in the bin, even if they are labelled as flushable. Similarly never pour FOGs down the sink, let pans and trays cool for a few minutes and using kitchen paper, scrape the setting fat into a container and dispose of the fat in the general bin.
“We are working hard in the Galway City area to reduce the number of sewer blockages, the risk of flooding to homes and businesses and the risk of pollution in the environment harming wildlife such as fish and birds and associated habitats,” said Ms Dwyer.
Elaine Doyle, a Think Before You Flush Campaigns Officer with Clean Coasts said: “This is a simple yet important campaign. Waste poured down the drain or flushed down the toilet can have a significant impact to a householder, business owner, the waste water network, water quality and marine life.
“All of us can take actions in our homes and places of work and make a real difference, not only helping our neighbours but helping marine life and our beautiful waterways. We are delighted to be running the Think Before Your Flush and Think Before You Pour campaigns in Galway City to spread the important message.”
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
The new Salmon Weir pedestrian and cycle bridge will be officially opened to the public next Friday, May 26.
Work on the €10 million bridge got underway in April 2022, before the main structure was hoisted into place in early December.
A lunchtime tape-cutting ceremony will take place on Friday, as the first pedestrians and cyclists traverse the as-yet-unnamed bridge.
The Chief Executive of Galway City Council, Brendan McGrath, previously said the bridge, once opened, would remove existing conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists and traffic “as well as facilitating the Cross-City Link public transport corridor over the existing 200-year-old bridge”.
The naming of the new bridge has been under discussion by the Council’s Civic Commemorations Committee since late last year.
One name that has been in the mix for some time is that of the first woman in Europe to graduate with an engineering degree – Alice Perry.
Ms Perry, who was from Wellpark, graduated from Queen’s College Galway (now University of Galway) in 1906. The university’s engineering building is named in her honour.
The bridge was built by Jons Civil Engineering firm in County Meath and was assembled off-site before being transported to Galway. Funding for the project was provided in full by the National Transport Authority and the European Regional Development Fund.
(Photo: Sheila Gallagher captured the city’s new pedestrian footbridge being raised on the south side of the Salmon Weir Bridge in December. It will officially open next Friday, May 26).
From the Galway City Tribune – Minister of State for Local Government and Planning, Kieran O’Donnell was labelled a “disgrace” for overturning councillors’ decisions to rezone land in the new City Development Plan.
Minister O’Donnell (pictured) confirmed in a letter to Council Chief Executive Brendan McGrath last week that he was reversing 25 material alternations made by councillors to the CDP 2023-29. He made the decision on the advice of Office of Planning Regulator (OPR).
Minister O’Donnell directed that 14 land parcels that were subject to land-use zoning changes by councillors as part of the Material Alterations to the Draft CDP should be reversed.
He directed that a further 11 land parcels in the city should become “unzoned”.
The Minister found that the CDP had not been made in a manner consistent with recommendations of the OPR, which required specific changes to the plan to ensure consistency with the national planning laws and guidelines.
At last week’s Council meeting Cllr Eddie Hoare (FG) asked for clarity on the process by which councillors could rezone the lands that had been changed by the Minister’s direction.
Cllr Declan McDonnell said, “What he [Minister O’Donnell] has done is an absolute disgrace”.
And he asked: “Do we have to have another development plan meeting to deal with it?”
Both Cllrs Hoare and McDonnell wondered what would become of the lands that were rezoned or unzoned by the ministerial direction.
Mr McGrath said the Council had put forward an argument in favour of retaining the material alterations in the plan, but ultimately the Minister sided with OPR.
He said if councillors want to make alterations to the new plan, they could go through the process of making a material alteration but this was lengthy.
The Save Roscam Peninsula campaign welcomed the Minister’s decision.
In a statement to the Galway City Tribune, it said the direction would mean the Roscam village area on the Roscam Peninsula will be unzoned and a number of land parcels would revert back to agriculture/high amenity.
A spokesperson for the campaign said: “the material alterations made by city councillors following lobbying by developers continued the long-standing practice of councillors facilitating a developer-led plan rather than an evidence- and policy-based plan that meets the needs of the city.
“The Minister’s direction is an important step in restoring confidence in the planning system. It is clear from the City Council’s own evidence on future housing projections that there was no requirement to zone these lands for residential purposes in order to meet the needs of the targeted population increase up to 2029,” the spokesperson added.
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