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WINTER FOCUS
WASTEWATER TREATMENT – NOT GOOD ENOUGH!
BY BILLY FLYNN
As we approach the end of the year, it gives us a chance to look back and reflect on the state of the environment and what progress we might have made. In the light of recent information and a steady stream of gloomy and foreboding reports, you’d hope that we have cause to be optimistic that we are turning things around. Indeed, a recent (October 2022) review of Ireland’s wastewater treatment in 2021 reports progress in terms of how we are treating our surface waters. However, some of the details therein do not give us much to cheer about.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) report, Urban Waste Water Treatment in 2021, describes how the billion or so litres of water that we discharge to public sewers is treated and how this stacks up against the standards that have been set for the protection of the watercourses and waterbodies into which the treated water is eventually discharged. Irish Water is the national water utility that is responsible for providing this service and the EPA is essentially the watchdog that keeps track of how Irish Water is doing in terms of environmental standards and impacts.
The EPA report identifies five key issues, a set of environmental priorities, that Irish Water must address to protect our environment from potentially harmful effects of the wastewater that is discharged. It sets these out in terms of the urban areas where standards are not being met, non-compliant sewers and areas where environmental sensitivities make improved treatment a priority. In all, these amount to some 98 areas and are summarised in the table, on page 23.
There is good news in this report. Of the 174 large urban areas that are subject to the EU wastewater treatment standards, 162 areas were compliant. While this still leaves 12 areas where standards were not met, this is down from 28 non-complying areas in 2017 and 19 such areas in 2019.
So, we are headed in the right direction, it would appear. However, on the downside, nearly half of all of Ireland’s wastewater is generated in these 12 noncompliant areas. This cohort includes the greater Dublin area where the overloaded Ringsend treatment plant cannot discharge properly treated effluent. Large urban centres in Co. Cork including Cobh, Ringaskiddy and Clonakilty also contribute to the offending discharge list. It should be said that works are underway at all of the larger centres to bring their discharges into line. Last year, major works in Cork and Ennis brought these within the compliance bracket for the first time.
Alarmingly, a total of 32 towns and villages discharge raw (completely untreated) sewage into our rivers and seas, enough to fill three Olympic size swimming pools every day. New wastewater treatment plants and connections to existing plants are desperately needed in such areas as Ballycotton (Co. Cork), Ramelton (Co. Donegal) and Foynes (Co. Limerick). The swiftest glance at the National Parks and Wildlife Service’s database of protected sites shows Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) and Special Protection Areas in the direct firing line in these sensitive locations. While Irish Water
project that all of these offenders will be brought into line by 2027, that is another five years of ongoing damage, day in, day out.
In terms of risks to our surface waters (lakes, rivers and coastal waters), Ireland’s draft third cycle River Basin Management Plan (2022-2027) identified wastewater discharges as a significant pollution pressure on 208 water bodies. This represents an improvement on the 291 water bodies thus identified in the previous cycle (2018-2021). Rivers are the most affected of the water bodies with the River Suir (SAC) and River Barrow (SAC) potentially suffering from insufficiently treated discharges.
One of the most endangered species in Ireland – the freshwater pearl mussel – is in decline and for the most part, this is down to poor water quality. The EPA has identified 12 towns and villages where improvements are needed in order to protect vulnerable freshwater pearl mussel populations. This has not improved over
Environmental Priorities Priority Areas
Ensure wastewater treatment at all large urban areas complies with European Union standards
12 large urban areas that did not meet EU treatment standards in 2021 require improvements Eliminate discharges of raw sewage 32 towns and villages discharging raw sewage into the environment every day must be connected to wastewater treatment plants
Upgrade collecting systems noncompliant with EU requirements
Improve treatment to protect inland and coastal waters that are adversely impacted by wastewater
Improve treatment, where needed, to protect the freshwater pearl mussel Six collecting sewers must be upgraded
38 priority areas require improvements to protect rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal waters that are adversely affected by wastewater
12 areas need improvements in wastewater treatment to protect the freshwater pearl mussels
The recently completed Inishannon Wastewater Treatment Plant. Photo by Jason Nash
the year since the last EPA assessment of these areas. However, the EPA report does describe improvements in three of these areas although monitoring hasn’t provided enough evidence to back this up. There are five areas where no plans at all have been set out to show how things will improve for this critically endangered species.
While the report certainly shows improvement, there is clearly room for much more. At time of writing, Irish Water had not clearly identified when and how improvements will be made in one third of the priority areas described above. As a nation, we have taken this precious national resource for granted and misused it as a matter of routine. The continued discharges of completely untreated sewage are impacting watercourses that are protected (at least on paper) for wild species and their habitats. We know that climate change is going to put additional pressure on our water supplies and waterdependent ecosystems with each passing year. The necessary improvements can’t come soon enough.
Dublin Bay continues to suffer the effects of poorly treated sewage
