A wastewater treatment plant in a Co Cork village is overflowing into an area adjacent to a local stream, in an environmentally sensitive area. It’s located in Castlewhite Estate, Whitechurch, near Cork City.
According to local TD Colm Burke, no-one is currently responsible for the maintenance of the treatment plant.
“No-one has been responsible for the maintenance or performance of the treatment plant since 2008”, the Cork north-central TD said.
He has been in contact with Cork County Council, Uisce Éireann and the Environmental Protection Agency since late last year. Burke says the buck is being passed between these various statutory bodies.
He describes the constant seepage as “like a spring coming from the tank”.
He took samples from the local stream in April and again in June. He has shared the results with the Irish Farmers Journal and they show concerning levels of nutrients in the local stream.
“If a farmer was allowing this amount of seepage from his yard there would be someone out with them within 24 hours,” he commented.
The plant is supposed to pump into a larger treatment facility, but the pumping system is not operative. It may be that there is no power supply.
Cork County Council has said: “The pumping station at issue here is part of the wastewater infrastructure of the Castlewhite Estate in Whitechurch and is, we understand, the subject of ongoing discussions between Uisce Éireann and receivers for the original developer.”
It highlighted that local authorities no longer have any direct role in this taking in charge process. Uisce Éireann, which is the responsible authority, has not provided a substantive update to Burke, he said.
Burke says this is just one of hundreds of privately-built treatment plants that are not being maintained by anybody.
“There are 50 such cases in Co Cork alone and as many as 500 across the country,” he said.
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