Dead in the water: Plan for 126 homes in Cork town halted by over-capacity wastewater plant 

The problem is writ large in the county development plan, where it has been enshrined as an objective that no new developments requiring a connection to the Dunmanway plant will be permitted until the necessary wastewater treatment plant upgrades are in place, despite the same plan saying the town needs 126 new homes to cope with population growth by 2028.

With just over 26 hectares of residential zoned land in the town, the treatment plant capacity issue has effectively “sterilised” those sites, with a range of residential and mixed-use sites which were originally deemed liable for the new residential zoned land tax subsequently delisted — essentially an admission by the State that the sites can’t be developed because it has failed to service them adequately.

Uisce Éireann says upgrades to the plant could be up to five years away.

The new action group, established by the town’s chamber of commerce, is not prepared to wait that long.

Financial adviser Tim Healy, who chairs the chamber, said the treatment plant capacity issues have constrained one of West Cork’s most accessible towns, making it unable to take new housing, and “putting a noose on commercial growth in the town”.

Jobs and investment limited by wastewater capacity 

Businessman Paul di Rollo, who runs Glentree Furniture in the town with his wife Evelyn, has first-hand experience of how the wastewater treatment plant capacity issues have cost the town jobs and investment.

In 2021, he applied for planning permission for a unit to accommodate three food-related businesses but was directed to withdraw it when ecology concerns, linked to its potential additional load on the treatment plant, were raised.

“We have the space and the location, and we had three businesses which wanted to move into the area, bring investment and jobs, but we were directed to withdraw the application amid concerns over the ecology,” said Mr di Rollo.

“Dunmanway is very centrally located and could be a great commercial hub for lots of small- to medium-sized enterprises.

“We know other towns have capacity issues at their local WWTP. But our understanding is that Dunmanway is one of the few towns in the country that has written into the county development plan an effective blanket ban on planning applications or development.

“It has been an issue for years and we are very frustrated by the fact that one body always seems to point to the other as being responsible for solving the problem.

“I met the housing minister two years ago and told him about the problems, and he said ‘oh we’ll look at it’ but we’ve had nothing but flannel ever since.”

There seems to be a focus on centralising housing in the cities but the Government doesn’t seem to recognise that it could ease some of the pressure, and unlock so much potential in rural areas, if it addressed problems like this. 

Donal Cahalane, project director with Cahalane Brothers General Building Contractors, which is based in the town, says the town’s residentially-zoned landbanks could accommodate up to 1,250 new homes over time.

“We are almost half way through the latest county development plan, but just one new private house was built in Dunmanway last year and that was because it provided its own septic tank," he said. 

"There will be no new private homes built in the town this year." 

The firm built the town’s Ross Geal housing estate in phases from 2000, and had to provide a private wastewater treatment plant before it could deliver the later phases, until the new plant came on stream just over a decade ago.

“We have another phase of 24 homes there that if we could get planning, we could basically start in the morning,” said Mr Cahalane. 

“It’s infuriating really. People would like to live in the town, and the demand for housing is considerable but we just can’t build. It could be an affordable place to live if the housing supply could be facilitated.”

Despite working as the main contractors on the landmark regeneration of the former Mercy Convent and school in Bantry as social housing for Cluid and Cork County Council, Mr Cahalane said they can’t develop the former Daughters of Charity Convent in Dunmanway, where their offices are based, because of the treatment plant issues.

'Shocking' wastewater discharge into river

The chamber, which has been trying to resolve the issue for three years, decided to go public after a discharge from the plant into the River Bandon on July 17, which is now the subject of an Inland Fisheries Ireland probe.

The plant discharges into a special area of conservation in the River Bandon, noted for its inland delta and presence of the fresh water pearl mussel. 

The plant was commissioned in 2012 under a design, build, and operate contract between Cork County Council and the EPS Group for a population equivalent of 3,500, with a new European directive a year later setting higher standards for its
discharge.

The plant has since transferred to Uisce Éireann but is still operated on its behalf by EPS. But the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which oversees its discharge licence, conducted a compliance investigation on it in 2021 following breaches of the allowable discharge limits for ammonia and orthophosphate, which it said were most likely caused by “inadequate operational procedures or training”.

Its most recently published annual environmental report on the plant shows it was not compliant with the limits set in its wastewater discharge licence.

The utility has told the campaign group that any proposed short-term upgrades to the plant would only bring it into compliance for current loadings, understood to be for a population equivalent of 2,620, and that no new capacity would be achieved without more significant upgrades.

While it has said publicly that the plant has capacity, it has conceded to the campaign group that tertiary treatment needs to be added, and this needs to be costed before funding can be allocated. The action group says it wants that option costed, funded, and delivered while designs for the larger upgrades are being advanced.

It wants a timeline for when a fully-operational plant with sufficient capacity for growth in the town will be in place. And following the July discharge, it also wants a live monitoring and reporting system to catch discharges early.

No comment on sludge claims

Uisce Éireann has, however, declined to comment on claims that the plant, despite is capacity issues, is taking up to four deliveries a week of sludge from other plants across West Cork during peak tourist season, when holiday homes in the region are occupied.

In the county development plan, the council says it is committed to working with other stakeholders to identify and implement the most appropriate solutions to resolve the wastewater treatment plant issues as soon as possible. However, in a statement, Uisce Éireann says that solution won’t be considered until its next capital funding round between 2025 and 2029.

It points to its investment of some €400m in Cork since 2020, with over 60% of it being invested in modernising and improving the overall water and wastewater infrastructure across the county.

This is in addition to the approximately €300m that was invested in upgrading water and wastewater infrastructure in the county between 2014 and 2019 — in major projects such as the Cork Lower Harbour Main Drainage Project, Mallow and Bandon Sewer Network and Wastewater Treatment Plant upgrades, and Skibbereen Regional Water Supply Scheme.

TD hits out at 'unacceptable' delays

Fianna Fáil TD for Cork South West Christopher O’Sullivan said the level of funding to Uisce Éireann has doubled in the lifetime of this Government and a solution for Dunmanway must be found.

“A five- to 10-year wait for upgrades is just unacceptable,” he said.

It’s also unacceptable that a plant built a decade ago, in what was a multi-million investment, is already nearly at capacity. 

He said the utility can prioritise certain capital projects in the strategic interests of a town, as was the case in Clonakilty in 2018/2019 to address water supply issues.

“At the time, Uisce Éireann said it could take eight to 10 years to deliver extra capacity but it was solved within 18 months, when they brought water from Baxter’s Bridge along the N22 in what was a €17m project,” he said.

“People put their heads together and found a solution.

“I would call for a similar approach here for the good of Dunmanway.”