Council sewerage project ‘vital for town’s future expansion’

A BARRIER to the future expansion of Ennis is to be lifted with Clare County Council lodging plans for a sewerage scheme.

The proposed sewerage project has been described as a “vital piece of infrastructure” for the town.

Over the past three years, the local authority has refused planning permission to a number of large-scale housing developments in the greater Ennis area, due to basic infrastructure deficiencies.

Since 2008, the council has refused planning permission to over 1,000 homes citing the over-capacity of the sewage system.

The council first proposed a new sewage plant in 1995 to deal with the area’s looming sewage infrastructure deficit.

Now, the council has lodged plans for a multi-million euro upgrade on its Clonroadmore plant, with plans to commence work later this year.

Cllr Brian Meaney said yesterday: “There is extreme urgency attaching to the project and the need was identified 20 years ago.

“This is a first step in a series of measures required. It is vitally important that this project happens as soon as possible. It is a vital piece of infrastructure.”

In the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) lodged with the planning application, the council cautions that a “do nothing” scenario would result in negative impacts on the receiving environment and on the economic development of the area and would be in non-compliance with the requirements of the Urban Waste Water Regulations 2010.

The EIS states the upgrading is required immediately “due to overloading and non-compliance with the Waste Water Discharge licence and the Water Framework Directive requirements”.

The current demands on the system is for 26,000 people and the Clonroadmore plant has the capacity to deal with 17,000 and the proposal is to increase capacity to cater for 30,150 people up to 2022.

The move to press ahead with the upgrading of the Clonroadmore plant follows the council deciding not to press ahead with its €75-million plant to construct a new waste water treatment plant at Clareabbey near Clarecastle.

Department guidelines stated the council would have had to contribute €22 million to that scheme and the EIS for the Clonroadmore plant states: “In the current economic context, the council will be unable to fund this amount now or at any time in the foreseeable future.”

The EIS states the requirement to deal with capacity beyond 2022 will be catered for at an expanded Clareabbey waste water treatment plant.

Construction on the Clonroadmore update is expected to take 12 months.

The council state the option to press ahead with the Clonroadmore plan is founded on the basis of minimum disturbance of existing facilities, shorter delivery time, ongoing use of the existing sites where the activity of wastewater treatment is already established and sustainability in economic and energy terms.

A decision is due on the application later this year.