Tipperary councillor describes as 'damning' EPA report into village's wastewater plant

A recently released report from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on the Ballycommon wastewater treatment plant has been described as “damning” by a local councillor.

The plant, which was taken in charge by Tipperary County Council around 2016, has no discharge authorisation for the discharge pipe which has caused so much damage to the Nenagh River, so the plant itself is unauthorised, Cllr Seamus Morris said this week.

He said that it was also “incredible” that the plant has been operating at barely 50% capacity for so long “and even more incredible is the fact that it was recently deemed good enough for new homes to be attached to the plant”.

“If the plant was operating at capacity it would be plenty good enough to deal with a Population Equivalent (PE) of 500 and the recent application for much needed housing would not have needed to have been withdrawn. Incredibly also Irish Water has stated that they were not aware of the problems with the plant before they took it over,” he said.

Cllr Morris said that he had consistently pressed Tipperary County Council and Irish Water for clarity on the plant, which was being emptied seven days a week by lorry since May at an estimated a cost of €1,000 a day.

The situation now was that Irish Water had to apply for discharge authorisation which will need major upgrades to the plant, he said.

“I am delighted to say that upgrade works on the plant are due to start soon,” said Cllr Morris.

The plant was inspected by EPA officers on May 24 this year and their report was issued on June 23.

The report notes that the plant is unauthorised and on their visit, the inspectors found at the discharge point to the Nenagh River there was visual evidence of pollution. The discharge from the pipe to the river was discoloured (brown in colour) compared to the river water and the rocks near the discharge point were also discoloured (white and black in colour) compared to the surrounding rocks. Sewage fungus was also found to be growing directly downstream of the discharge pipe. There also was an unpleasant odour emanating from the discharge pipe.

They found the plant not to be operating as designed and ordered that tankering be put in place. This began on May 25.

The report states that Uisce Éireann was required to apply to the EPA for a discharge authorisation without delay and establish an improved internal communication system whereby the internal compliance team was made aware of all plants taken in charge by Uisce Éireann, including those authorised, but also those yet to apply for authorisation.

The Ballycommon treatment plant consists of a Kingspan Klargester HEQ 80,000 and has a PE capacity of 300.

According to the report, Uisce Éireann detailed that Kingspan engineers had visited the site and determined that the aeration system was not working continuously as designed.

Uisce Éireann also indicated that their own internal compliance team only became aware that the plant was an Uisce Éireann asset after receipt of a complaint and were not made aware when the plant was originally taken in charge as it did not have a certificate of authorisation or a licence.