Irish Water  has said there will be a large increase in its wastewater expenditure over the next few years up to the end of 2021.

 The water company was commenting as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published its annual Urban Wastewater Treatment Report which highlights a 25% increase in investment by Irish Water to upgrade its wastewater treatment infrastructure in 2017.

The water company has upgraded or built new wastewater treatment plants in 55 locations and is on track to deliver investment plans which will result no areas in the country having any form of untreated wastewater discharge by 2021.

Since 2014 Irish Water has upgraded or built new wastewater treatment plants in 55 locations across the country including 12 towns where raw sewage was going directly into the water.

The EPA’s annual Urban Wastewater Treatment Report points to the progress made by Irish Water in 2017. The utility increased expenditure by 25% to €215 million last year to ensure the development and delivery of solutions to support the safe return of wastewater to the environment via its network of 30,000 kilometres of public sewers and 1,100 wastewater treatment plants.

Irish Water is increasing investment in wastewater infrastructure year on year and has planned to increase spending on wastewater projects in the existing Capital Investment Plan. Many of wastewater projects are currently in the design and planning stage and expenditure during this stage is significantly lower than during construction.

Irish Water said there will be a large increase in wastewater expenditure over the next few years up to the end of 2021.

The utility is focussing investment in wastewater by prioritising locations that are not compliant with European Standards under the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive. It also focuses on those locations with no treatment of raw sewage and other locations where the company needs to improve existing treatment.

Irish Water said it is “fully committed to meeting the timescales associated with the European Court of Justice Urban Wastewater Treatment Case.”

Since 2016 Irish Water has completed works at 16 locations ensuring compliance with European standards under the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive. Irish Water has corrective actions in place for 28 sites that failed in 2017.

New wastewater plants have been constructed in 12 towns around the country where raw sewage was discharging directly into the water and plans are progressing for an additional 38 locations.

In conjunction with local authorities, Irish Water is continuing to roll out standard operating procedures for wastewater treatment plants to ensure that they are operated to the highest standards possible.

Speaking about the progress made by Irish Water, Head of Asset Management Sean Laffey said:

“In total since 2014 Irish Water has upgraded or built new wastewater treatment plants in 55 locations across the country improving the environment, supporting tourism and in many cases building capacity for new homes and businesses.”

“In some cases, progress has been slower than we would like due to complex conditions, planning and other issues, but Irish Water has a plan for every area.”

“The size and scale of the challenge we have faced over the past four years has been considerable, but the expertise and capability of Irish Water and local authority engineers and other staff has meant that we have developed solutions and plans to support the safe return of wastewater to the environment from almost 1.1 million homes throughout Ireland.”

Failure to treat waste water properly is damaging rivers and coastal waters

The EPA has criticised the water company for the failure of waste water treatment at 28 of Ireland’s 179 large towns and cities to meet standards set to prevent pollution and protect public health, commenting:

“ Though we have seen some improvements, Ireland is not investing quickly enough to provide the infrastructure needed to treat our waste water.”

“Deficiencies exist in many treatment plants and public sewers, due to a legacy of underinvestment, and waste water is still entering the environment without receiving sufficient treatment.”

Dr Tom Ryan, Director of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Enforcement said:

“Ireland is not addressing the deficiencies in its waste water treatment infrastructure at a fast-enough pace. It is unacceptable that, 13 years after the final deadline to comply with treatment standards, there are still 28 large towns and cities discharging inadequately treated sewage that fails to meet these standards. This is putting our health at risk and is having an impact on our rivers, lakes and coastal waters.”

Environmental priorities

The EPA report identifies the following as the priority areas for improvements.

• 28 large towns and cities where waste water treatment failed to meet mandatory standards. These account for over half of the sewage collected in our public sewers. The final deadline to comply with the standards was 2005 and Ireland is before the EU Court of Justice for breaching these requirements.
• 38 towns and villages discharging raw sewage. The EPA has prosecuted Irish Water for delays in providing treatment plants at six of these areas.
• 57 areas where waste water discharges are the sole environmental threat to rivers, lakes and coastal waters at risk of pollution.
• Areas where upgrade works are needed to protect 4 beaches with poor quality bathing water. The affected beaches are Merrion Strand, Clifden, Loughshinny and Sandymount Strand.
• 15 areas where improvements are needed to protect critically endangered freshwater pearl mussels or to safeguard shellfish habitats.
• 13 priority waste water collection networks (sewers) that need to be upgraded.

Darragh Page, Programme Manager of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Enforcement said a substantial increase in the rate of investment is necessary to provide the infrastructure needed to treat waste water. Irish Water also needed to improve its understanding of the condition and performance of sewers, to help focus sewer upgrade works where they are most urgently needed.

Click here to download the EPA Report