Effluent entering Nenagh River at many points

The outflow pipe from the malfunctioning wastewater treatment plant at Ballycommon was not the only point where effluent was entering the Nenagh River.

Local anglers have located several other pipes along the river where pollutants were entering the waterway, Cllr Seamus Morris revealed at the April meeting of the Nenagh Municipal District authority.

Cllr Morris said a number ofanglers had sent him photographs of pipes carrying waste inflows into the river. “There are several pipes coming to the river with stuff flowing out of them hourly – mostly at weekend and a night time.”

He called on the council to establish with Uisce Éireann how many pipes discharging to the river were licensed and what system was in place to monitoring the effluent flowing from them.

Many people would not have even known of the problems in Ballycommon but for the fact that the local angling club objected to further development in the village due to the sewage entering the river from the waste water treatment plant.

Cllr Joe Hannigan congratulated Cllr Morris for the efforts he had mounted to try to resolve the issues in Ballycommon and criticised unnamed others who were trying to take credit for doing the work when they were not involved at all. “You have taken this on like a dog with a bone and now great progress has been made as far as I can see,” he told Cllr Morris.

Cllr Hannigan said it was unfortunate that the problems were not just confined to Ballycommon. Development had been stalled in places like Cloughjordan and Ballina due to the inadequacy of sewage treatment plants. “It’s not good enough, because our rivers are being hit by the outflows from these plants.”