EPA critical of Irish Water as 1,800 tonnes of raw sewage enters Clare coast daily:

Calahonda52

Certainly has the makings of a sh*te filled summer of swimming

Good to see EPA have not bought into the several million euro Uisce Éireann rebrand bollo*

The Environmental Protection Agency has said 1,800 tonnes of raw sewage is entering the Clare coastline each day and the issue will not be fully resolved until 2025.

Noel Byrne, Senior Inspector with the EPA, said the agency has highlighted wastewater treatment issues at Lahinch and Ennistymon to Irish Water for several years.

He said there are five areas in Co Clare currently discharging raw sewage into the coastlines.

"Roughly 1,800 tonnes of raw [sewage is] going out per day," he added.

"The good news is that three of these areas, Liscannor, Clarecastle and Kilrush, will be resolved this year and the remaining two will be resolved by 2025," he added.

Mr Byrne said Lahinch and Ennistymon plants are not working properly and Irish Water has identified the long-term solution for these which is to construct one big plant that will cater for both.

Jarhead_Tendler

Now that the Green Party have been in Power for a number of years surly they have improved the situation?

Thelonious Monk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120310864#Comment_120310864

should all parties not be trying to fix issues like this? why did FFFG allow the situation to get so bad in the first place?

Jarhead_Tendler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120310965#Comment_120310965

Oh of course they should. However a government party who pride themselves on saving the planet should be all over this issue yesterday?

Thelonious Monk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120310985#Comment_120310985

i don't think you should pin this on one party, keeping our waterways clean should be a basic requirement of all councils and governments

Cluedo Monopoly

Some of the most beautiful coastline in the world and we fill it with raw sewage in 2023.

ongarite

I know it's cool to bash Irish Water here but I put the blame for this on the county council and board in this case.

This country is full of counties with crumbling burst pipes, poor water pressure & insufficient sewage infrastructure due to decades of disinterest & under investment by said councils.

Irish Water formed decade ago now & have to sort all this out at local, county & country level without the finances to do because we (people) won't pay for it.

Annasopra

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120311112#Comment_120311112

Yep.

The people want clean water but protested against paying for it

getoutadodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120311112#Comment_120311112

true

Wildly Boaring

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120311112#Comment_120311112

Exactly. I've seen the plant in Lahinch in 05 and it was a disaster back then.

There are 100s of plants in the country and there are even a few places that irish water are having to build new plants as there never was one. Cobh only got a plant last year.

Chronic under investment for ever can't all be on a 10 year old body or indeed the Greens

redlough

Irish Water was setup orginally to resolve issues like this. Put a proper system in place for water and sewage and replace the totally incompetent system we had previously

We marched to stop that happening

Now we are complaining about the problems with water & sewage that we, the people of Ireland, have created because we have what is left of Irish Water and it is massively underfunded.

Instead of pointing the finger at Irish Water, what is the local TD's in Clare doing?

Instead of waffling about the Green Party, what are all of the parties in Ireland doing to create a sustainable water and sewage system in Ireland?

Not easy answers, especially when people will have to admit the water charges is probably exactly what we need.

SuperBowserWorld

How come this wasn't a problem until the EPA called it out ? Were the locals happy to see all this go straight into the sea for decades ? The locals who work for county councils, Irish water, vote for government, work for public and civil service, have eyes and ears, produced the ****.

Why ? Because most people don't care about the environment. That's why. Unless it directly effects them. They absolutely don't give a ****. They can't see for how this effects them and their children's future. They are too busy on the hyper consumer hamster wheel.

Pumping **** in the sea is just the tip of the iceberg.

These articles go on about Irish Water as if it’s a private entity that’s trying to profit off this and going with a narrative that’s appropriate to the UK water companies.

It’s effectively a national public body, mandated to clean up after decades of council lack of finance, ineptitude, bad planning that often built first and used totally inadequate water and waste infrastructure, and generally gross underinvestment by central government. We also can’t keep blaming it on being poor. The 1980s were a long time ago and we’ve been through multiple huge economic booms, even with the brief and spectacular bust.

The reality of it is that we’re a rich country that frequently penny pinches on infrastructure, failing to forecast growth and grossly undersizing all sorts of things across a range of areas of essential services.

We make political decisions by choosing not to notice any of this until we’re literally swimming in it.

Either invest or accept the reality of inadequate infrastructure.

It should be embarrassing that we had to be basically hammered into line on this by EU policies, rather than valuing our own coastlines, rivers and lakes and taking the initiative because it was something that would just be a good thing to do and might, I donno, benefit us all.