Opponents to fight on after site chosen for super sewage plant
Planning permission for the wastewater treatment plant at Clonshaugh, north Dublin, and an outfall pipe 6km out to sea from Baldoyle will go to An Bord Pleanála next year.
Project managers with Dublin Greater Drainage said the site, which is 2.2km east of Dublin Airport and between the Malahide road and the M1, is ecologically and environmentally better.
Two other locations near Lusk in north Co Dublin had also been shortlisted. The plans also include a 26km orbital sewer to pump sewage from across Dublin and parts of Kildare and Meath.
More than 10,000 residents lodged objections against the facility, fearing it will harm farming and horticulture and destroy the local fishing industry and coastline.
A statement on the Greater Dublin Drainage website said the preferred site was the best solution for the future development of waste water treatment capacity in the wider Dublin region. It said tunnelling of the preferred outfall was technically easier and the location had a greater depth of water for treated water discharged into the sea.
It said the estimated overall cost of €500m would be more than €80m less than other options studied.
The decision was being announced at a meeting of Fingal County Council.
Peter O’Reilly, the council’s project engineer, said the project is vital for employment, social progress and economic growth in the wider Dublin region.
“Waste water treatment capacity is one of the key elements of infrastructure needed to facilitate jobs and other developments like schools, hospitals and housing in the wider Dublin region and our current capacity will run out in 2020.”
The facility will cater for a population equivalent to 350,000 in 2020 when the plant opens.
It will be capable of treating up to 700,000 population equivalent when it is at full capacity by 2040.
Campaign group Reclaim Fingal Alliance has vowed to step up its battle against a large-scale treatment plant anywhere in the area, which it said already deals locally with its own waste water through smaller plants.
Brian Hosford, chairman, said: “We are still opposed to this no matter where it is going. We don’t agree with a large single plant anywhere.
“We believe that regardless of where this goes the potential for an environmental disaster remains. The bigger the plant, the bigger the problem that can come with it.”
Joe Jones, whose father PJ owns most of the land at the preferred site, said his mother got a phone call yesterday informing them of the decision. He criticised Fingal County Council and project managers for not getting in touch with the family sooner or inviting them to the council meeting.
“They haven’t come near us at all,” he said.
The family grow cabbages, cauliflower and broccoli on a 30-acre farm, where they also live.
“This will be a huge problem for us,” the 45-year-old added. “We’ll probably have to get land somewhere else.
“But I’m not going to start getting worried at all about it until they have the decency to come and talk to us.”
