Save our rivers: Raw sewage spills among three incidents a day at water facilities reported to EPA

The wastewater treatment plant on the Sullane in Macroom Co Cork which flows into the Lee — the focus of Day 1 of the Save our Rivers series. See below for link to that article. Picture: Dan Linehan

Raw sewage spillages were among the more than three incidents a day on average at Uisce Éireann waste water treatment facilities last year reported to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The 1,141 events at the 370 facilities also included uncontrolled releases, offline equipment, and breaches of emission values.

On the first day of an Irish Examiner investigation of our rivers, we examine the impact of human activity on our waterways, from the likes of waste water treatment plants.

Each article in this five-day 'Irish Examiner' series will be available at this link, Save our Rivers, as they go online this week. 

CLIMATE & SUSTAINABILITY HUB

Blocked and broken sewer pipes, power failures, plant and equipment breakdown, pump failures, and storm water overflow caused by high rainfall are some of the likely causes given for the incidents, in documents seen by the Irish Examiner.

Uisce Éireann, formerly Irish Water, has a mandatory requirement to report such occurrences to the EPA. A number of the waste water treatment plants saw multiple or repeated incidents throughout the year.

Over-capacity treatment plant

The region with the highest number of incidents, 133, was the greater Dublin area, with 51 of these taking place in the Ringsend waste water treatment plants. That plant treats over 40% of the country’s waste water. It has been over capacity for years — when built in 2005 it was meant to cater to a population of 1.64m but by 2019 it was already treating waste for almost 2m.

It has been undergoing a €550m upgrade.

A press spokesperson for Uisce Éireann told the Irish Examiner some of the issues at Ringsend in 2023 were related to storm water overflows.

The current upgrade of Ringsend means that the capacity will be increased and these incidents will be fewer in number, although they will occur. 

There were 43 further incidents in Co Dublin including in Balbriggan, Donabate and Malahide. Many were uncontrolled releases of untreated or partially treated waste water caused by issues including plant equipment malfunction, broken sewers and high rainfall.

Upgrades to Cork plants 

There were 124 incidents at waste water treatment plants in Co Cork, including 16 in Cork City. This is up from 111 incidents for Cork city and county in 2022.

Uisce Éireann is spending €400m on upgrades at Cork plants between 2020 and 2025, with a further €400m expected in the water utility’s next investment cycle from 2025 to 2029.

The utility’s spokesperson said the number of events in Cork was impacted by “record rainfall and flooding”.

Elsewhere there were 69 incidents reported in Co Mayo, 64 in Co Waterford, and 41 in Co Tipperary.

Wexford had 117 incidents, including 59 of uncontrolled release at Wexford Town waste water treatment plant, with other incidents in seaside localities including Duncannon, Kilmore Quay, and Rosslare Strand.

By the end of 2023 there were an additional 230 incidents reported that were either ongoing for some time, or were likely to recur because Uisce Éireann had not fixed the underlying problem that caused the incident.

Of those, 99 were due to treatment plants requiring an upgrade to meet their emissions values, 24 were due to “inadequate infrastructure,” and 13 of the ongoing incidents were in plants operating above capacity.

49 of the recurring incidents happened at treatment plants in Co Cork.

Incident reporting is required “even when there is no environmental impact and as such the number of incidents may not be reflective of environmental performance,” the Uisce Éireann spokesperson told the Irish Examiner.

CLIMATE & SUSTAINABILITY HUB