Kilkee waste water treatment plan encounters strong local opposition
One objection said the proposed waste water treatment plant would 'have a negative effect on Kilkee’s popular Cliff Walk’.
Plans by Uisce Éireann for a new waste water treatment plant for the West Clare seaside resort of Kilkee are facing strong local opposition, with one objector branding the proposal "a monstrosity".
Last month, the utility lodged plans for a new plant aimed at eliminating “in so far as possible” the discharge of untreated waste water into Intrinsic Bay at Kilkee.
However, the plan has encountered local opposition, with some objectors criticising the planned location close to the popular Cliff Walk, and claims the treatment proposed for the waste water does not go far enough.
To date, Clare County Council has received more than 80 third-party submissions on the scheme.
A planning report lodged with the application states current Waste Water Discharge Licence requires secondary treatment "but following an assessment, primary treatment has been concluded as appropriate treatment”.
In one objection, Gerard and Catriona Hennessy of Dough, Kilkee, told the council the proposed waste water treatment plant "will have a negative impact on such a scenic area. It is a local attraction on the Wild Atlantic Way and we believe this will have a negative effect on Kilkee’s popular 'Cliff Walk’”.
Elaine Haugh Hayes and Robert Hayes of Naughton’s bar and restaurant told the council they wished to object to the location of the proposed plant.
They said: “It is most unsuitable due to it being to it being adjacent to Kilkee’s most natural attraction — the Cliff Walk.”
Chris and Karen Kearns of Dough House, Kilkee, said the proposed treatment plant was providing only primary treatment “and given the 30-year life span of the development, this is way below the full waste water treatment that we the permanent residents of Kilkee have been promised since the mid 1990s”.
The Kearns added: “The proposal does not meet the expectations of preventing any sewage from reaching the pristine Kilkee Bay Blue Flag beach… that in the event of plant failure/excessive rainfall, there would be an emergency discharge to the Victoria Stream.
Tom Byrne told the council while it was commendable of Uisce Éireann to now address the issue of the construction of a badly needed waste water treatment plant to serve Kilkee, "what has been submitted falls very far short of what is required”.
The Kilkee man said given the population density and the strictures of the European Wastewater Treatment Directive, the people of Kilkee deserved an overdue and proper consultation on an acceptable and viable state-of-the-art solution.
Dr Tom Nolan also lodged an objection against what is proposed. Dr Nolan said it was a sad historical fact that the people of Kilkee and visitors had been treated disgracefully by the council over many years in the matter of the maintenance and high-quality bathing waters for which it was once famous.
On the Uisce Éireann proposal to provide primary treatment only, Dr Nolan said “it is unacceptable that a system so designed to fail is being offered”.
Kilkee resident Sheila Lardner has branded the plant as a “proposed monstrosity”.
She said the scheme would not only be "a visual eye-sore" on a scenic route “but also the smells, sounds and light pollution would destroy the area”.
A spokesman for Uisce Éireann said as the application was live, the utility would not be commenting on the contents of submissions.
He said the project “will end the discharge of inadequately treated sewage into the bay”.
