Anglers thrilled over move to protect river
A DECISION by the Environmental Protection Agency to order Irish Water to shut down the discharge pipe leading from the Ballycommon Wastewater Treatment Plant to the Nenagh River has been welcomed by the Secretary of the Nenagh Ormond Anglers, Joe O’ Donoghue, who said it was a “big win” for his association’s ongoing efforts to protect the biodiversity of the river.
Mr O’ Donoghue, who for decades has led campaigns to protect the river, renowned for its stocks of wild game fish, said raw sewage had been entering the river from the plant for some time, causing awful pollution problems and threatening brown trout, and protected species like salmon and eels.
He said the discharge licence for the use of the pipe from the sewage plant to the river had been granted by North Tipperary County Council since 2008, and there had been issues for quite some time in regard to pollution from the pipe entering the waterway.
“There has been a problem with that pipe ever since, and in the last few years it has got even worse,” said Mr O’ Donoghue, speaking on Tipp FM. He said the reason for the increasing problems with sewage entering the river was due to the fact that new housing had been built over the past decade in Ballycommon, leading to increased pressure on the treatment plant.
“It’s a small plant down there and it’s obviously not fit for purpose and the runoff from it ends up in the Nenagh River through that particular pipe,” said Mr O’ Donoghue.
He said he had been attempting to ascertain for the past six months whether the discharge pipe even had been granted planning permission. “I can’t find that out, and if it has nobody has come back to me to say it has planning permission, so at this point I’m assuming it doesn’t.”
UNTOLD DAMAGE
Mr O’ Donoghue said the raw sewage emanating from the plant via the pipe had been doing “untold damage” to the ecosystem of the river. The damage done was currently very noticeable, with hatches of various fly life that fish depended on for food radically reduced in numbers. Some species of fly life were “just not there anymore”.
The quality of the ecosystem of the river upstream of the site of the discharge point was much better than it was downstream of that site. The negative impact and damage done to the river by the raw sewage could not be measured until “you realise that the ecosystem was gone and see the damage that had been done.”
HOUSING PLAN
On the Ballycommon plant, he said: “It has been referred to a wastewater treatment plant, but it is anything but. It is a tank in the ground to which effluent flows in, but there is no treatment, there’s absolutely no treatment. It’s a holding tank, that is all it is.”
Mr O’ Donoghue said that the anglers association had to object to a plan for 17 to 18 new houses in Ballycommon last year due to problems with the plant. It was something the association did not want to do, particularly at a time when there was such a scarcity of house construction. But the fact was that the plant could simply not cope with the extra volumes of sewage that would result for more houses in the village.
He said it was terrible that salmon born in the river who had naturally migrated to sea for up to two years, and had survived all the perils of the Atlantic Ocean, only to return to their native river and encounter raw sewage. “It’s unbelievable, quite honestly.”
The pollution caused by the plant had extended beyond initial concerns voiced by anglers. There was a stud farm close to the discharge point and hugely expensive animals were drinking from the polluted waterway.
On top of that, the sewage was flowing down the river and entering the lake in Dromineer Bay in Lough Derg, an area frequented by lots of people involved in water sports, such as boating and swimming.
EPA INTERVENTION
Not convinced by assurances given by Tipperary County Council and Inland Fisheries Ireland that the problems caused by the plant were being dealt with, Mr O’ Donoghue said his association ultimately reported the matter to the Environment Protection Agency (EPA). He said officials from the EPA inspected the site where the discharge pipe from the plant entered the river on Wednesday week last and later had a meeting with officials of Irish Water and the council at the plant at Ballycommon.
The upshot was that the EPA had ordered Irish Water to shut down the discharge pipe to the river. “We are absolutely thrilled about that because the damage done but that pipe of only four inches was unreal. That’s a big win for us.” Mr O’ Donoghue said the sewage at the plant was now being pumped out and taken elsewhere.