Businesses warn of ‘negative impact’ from sludge treatment plant

BUSINESS and tourism interests have warned of a “negative impact” for an east Cork town where planning was granted for a sludge treatment plant.

The Youghal Chamber of Commerce and Tourism body is to appeal to Bord Pleanála against Cork County Council’s decision to approve the plant which, it was claimed, would process hazardous waste.

Eras Eco plans to operate a waste recovery/transfer and sludge drying facility on a 3.5-acre site at Foxhole, on the outskirts of the seaside town.

It recently acquired permission for a €10 million upgrade to the existing sludge drying process to enable it to accept hazardous wastes.

Chamber of Commerce director Michael Farrell warned that the planning conditions will allow residue to bypass the council’s waste water treatment and be distributed directly into the Blackwater river.

He believes the expansion will lead to an undesirable transportation into the town of hazardous materials and will jeopardise economic and tourism development on that basis.

A spokesman for the company, however, said it anticipated an appeal.

They company said it had failed in negotiations as certain interests in Youghal “made it very clear they don’t want us in town”.

Denying the expansion will impact negatively on the town, the spokesman says.

AquaCritox — an advanced oxidation technology — will provide 100% destruction of waste and convert it into clean water without generating odours or harmful emissions.

Residues, the company said, will be fed into the sewer system and then through a new council waste water treatment facility awaiting development.

The plant commenced operations under AVR Environmental Solutions in 2006. It was acquired by Eras Eco in 2009 and has license to process up to 110,000 tons of non-hazardous waste and industrial sludge from waste water treatment plants.

Eras Eco currently employs six full-time and four part-time staff. The company said the expanded operation will create 10 more jobs along with another 20 in construction.

Town and county councillor Barbara Murray said the town has suffered a decade of chronic job losses and pointed to the dark irony of a seaside town “being expected to accept hazardous waste from outside while we’re neither an industrial centre nor on the IDA’s radar”. “Why not treat the waste at source?” she asked.