Complaints of pollution at the Nenagh River are being received following Uisce Eireann’s takeover in January.
Councillor Seamie Morris says the new waste water treatment plant in Ballycommon is “regularly” polluting the river, causing issues such as a foul smell and safety concerns for aquatic life and swimmers.
Local authorities ceased control over waste water treatment plants and water in January of this year when Uisce Eireann took over, and the independent councillor says this has been causing problems with communication and action when things like this arise.
He says the change in ownership has resulted in an “unmitigated disaster”.
“It’s quite obvious that the waste treatment plant at Ballycommon is not working. It’s an unmitigated disaster because we don’t know who to ring, and it’s obvious that the council staff who are supposed to move over to Irish Water (Uisce Eireann) are refusing to. So, we’re caught in a bind and don’t know who to contact. We’re in a situation now where the Nenagh River is being polluted regularly. It’s obviously not working properly; Irish Water has acknowledged that it’s not working properly. It was designed to serve 500 people, and it’s not serving 60% of that. It’s filling up, and every time it fills up, it discharges straight into the river.”
The Independent councillor says it’s having dire knock-on effects.
“This pipe is constantly pumping stuff into the river, which is poisoning everything the whole way down. It’s going straight down, then into Dromineer. One of the people who contacted me is a local builder building houses for local people; he’s not a speculator or anything; he was actually finishing the place that this waste water treatment plant was to serve, and he can’t even squeeze in another 10 houses because, obviously, people are objecting to housing out there because of the environmental issues. So, there’s probably 30 houses held up over this now.”
