Irish Water prosecuted for discharge of treated effluent into Cork river
Entered Behalf Cork Was In A éireann At A Their Guilty Respect Treatment In Glenville, Of Discharge County Plea Waste Water Facility Uisce On Of
The €15bn cost to Irish Water of upgrading the waste water treatment facilities and network could be much higher than that now due to inflation and other factors, it emerged as the body was prosecuted for discharge of treated effluent into the River Owenbaun.
A guilty plea was entered on behalf of Uisce Éireann in respect of a discharge at their waste water treatment facility in Glenville, County Cork.
Judge Joanne Carroll convicted and fined Uisce Éireann €1,500 plus the costs of Inland Fisheries Ireland, €2,663.
Judge Carroll said: “I note the co-operation of the compliance officer from Uisce Éireann … I appreciate the demand in the area has escalated hugely and the design has not kept pace with the demand.”
Senior environmental officer with IFI, Andrew Gillespie, testified that he observed the discharge on June 25 this year from the waste water treatment facility at Glenville which gave rise to the prosecution for permitting or causing the discharge of deleterious matter into the River Owenbaun.
After the waste water was treated there was a discharge of effluent that contained material known as sewage fungus. Mr Gillespie said this meant that the river was having to process material with a high nutrient level, upsetting the ecology of the river.
There was no fish kill reported but the number of juvenile trout and salmon in that part of the river affected by the grey discharge was much fewer than the part of the river upstream of the discharge pipe. He said there was quite a lot of particulate matter in the grey discolouration and that the affected area of the riverbed was carpeted in fugus.
He said the Glenville treatment plant was designed to treat waste water from 300 houses but it is presently having to work at twice its available capacity to deal with the waste water from 567 homes.
At present there are no plans to increase the capacity of the treatment plant, IFI solicitor Vincent Coakley said.
Barrister Stephen O’Donoghue for Irish Water said of the Glenville plant: “It is operating beyond it’s design capacity. In mitigation, Uisce Éireann pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity. They were cooperative and made full admissions. Uisce Éireann takes these matters very seriously.
“There is a complicated legacy issue. Uisce Éireann inherited responsibility for waste water treatment infrastructure in 2014 and there was woeful lack of investment up to that date. With the funding restraints it is operating under it is trying to prioritise.
“Up to recently it was felt that an investment of up to €15bn was required nationally. Now it is felt the sum is greater in light of inflation and other matters.
“Uisce Éireann has to prioritise … between the very big waste water treatment plants (such as Ringsend catering for 1.97 million people) and the very small ones. There is limited funding put forward by the government.” He added that there was a list of priority investments in various parts of the country but that unfortunately Glenville was not on this list at the moment. He referred to €87million of investments made in areas including Millstreet, Mallow, Fermoy and Boherbue.