RAW SEWAGE WAS discharged into Dublin’s Baldoyle Bay following an electrical outage caused by Storm Betty.
The ESB said the damage was mainly attributable to lightning and fallen trees on overhead lines.
Baldoyle Bay, on the east coast of Fingal in Co Dublin, is part of the UNESCO Dublin Bay Biosphere.
It is also both a Special Protection Area (SPA) and a Special Area of Conservation (SAC).
These are prime wildlife conservation areas in Ireland and are considered to be important on a European level also.
An electrical outage resulted in the Portmarnock south pumping station discharging raw sewage into Baldoyle Bay from around 1am on Friday night into Saturday morning.
The issue was highlighted on social media by Sabrina Joyce-Kemper.
Portmarnock south pumping station has been discharging raw sewage into Baldoyle Bay SAC/ SPA since probably 1am when electricity went out this morning. Fingal engineers working to get sucker truck to site but we should be considering solar power and storage at all PS sites. pic.twitter.com/G6dm07EWw5
— Sabrina Joyce-Kemper SJK (@kemper_sabrina) August 19, 2023
Speaking to The Journal, she said: “I’ve been involved in protecting Baldoyle Bay for a number of years now due to the important designation that it has.
“It’s probably one of the most heavily protected in Fingal.”
Joyce-Kemper told The Journal that there are a “lack of mitigation measures in place” for incidents like these.
“There have been a couple of incidents over the last couple of years,” said Joyce-Kemper, “as recently as 2020 when we last reported an electrical fault that caused over 20 hours of pumping raw sewage in.
“So here we go again, we have another sewage discharge and it’s getting quite frustrating to see another incident due to electrical faults.”
Joyce-Kemper added that “it’s usually down to the locals to report when we see the sewage coming out”.
“There should be an alarm monitoring system going straight to Fingal County Council saying there’s an issue so that they can send somebody out straightaway and put a generator on site,” said Joyce-Kemper.
While she praised the response of Fingal County Council on this occasion, Joyce-Kemper added: “They had a sucker truck out very fast to help deal with it when it was reported, but the difficulty is that there should be an alarm reporting it to Irish Water or to Fingal County Council themselves.”
Responding to Joyce-Kemper’s tweet on the incident, local Social Democrats councillor Joan Hopkins commented: “Pumping raw sewage into a protected area occurs regularly. The frequency this now occurs means we must implement new measures.”
Joyce-Kemper told The Journal that Hopkins has been “very helpful in trying to get incidents tracked within Fingal County Council”.
However, Joyce-Kemper added that it can be difficult to get information on incidents such as these from the County Council.
“I have found that Fingal County Council seem to be almost using the fact that there are two agencies involved to say, ‘deal with the other person on this’ kind of basic manoeuvre.”
When approached for comment on this incident by The Journal, a spokesperson for Fingal County Council referred the query to Uisce Éireann, formerly known as Irish Water.
An Uisce Éireann spokesperson told The Journal that Storn Betty has resulted in a “prolonged ESB power outage” that impacted a “very large area of north County Dublin”.
Uisce Éireann said that as a result of this, “one third of our pumping stations lost their power supply as the switches tripped and the generators had to be reset”.
At least 24 pumping stations were impacted.
The spokesperson added that “all available resources were deployed when it was safe to do so” but added that “due to the large number of pumping stations impacted, it took a number of hours to adequately attend to all impacted assets”.
The Uisce Éireann spokesperson said: “The torrential rainfall also created surges in the network and Storm Water Overflows (SWOs).
“During times of heavy rainfall, when the sewers and pumping stations become overwhelmed, SWOs enable excess flows to be discharged into the sea, rivers or watercourses in a controlled manner.
“This is to protect homes, gardens, roads and open spaces from wastewater flooding.
“Stormwater discharges normally do not have a lasting effect as they are highly diluted with rainfall, tides and winds wash out and disperse spills, and sunlight provides natural ultraviolet disinfection.
“When such overflows kick in, local authority drainage crews respond when it is safe to do so they can to clear up any debris that might have been discharged onto the shoreline during the overflow.”
The Uisce Éireann spokesperson noted that “on some occasions, SWOs may continue to be released due to the infiltration and volumes involved”.
Meanwhile, councillor Joan Hopkins told The Journal: “Baldoyle Bay is a Special Area of Conservation and a Special Protected Area.
“You would never know this considering how we treat it.”
Hopkins noted that the bay plays a “vital role in biodiversity” and provides habitat for thousands of birds, including protected and endangered species.
She added that it also provides “significant protection from coastal flooding” which threatens the surrounding areas of Baldoyle, Sutton and Portmarnock.
“It, like other estuaries in Ireland, are under constant threat from pollution,” said Hopkins.
“Climate Change means more rain and we are now seeing these sewage events into our bay and beaches happening more and more regularly.
“Government, via Irish water, have their heads completely in the sand about this, investment can no longer be avoided.
“We require urgent investment in our water treatment infrastructure immediately. We either pay for this now or we will all pay for it later.”
Baydoyle Bay is a notable foraging spot for Brent geese given it is one of the biggest sites for eelgrass, which the geese mostly feed on.
“If you’re changing the conditions of a bay lie that with nitrogen and phosphorus increase, you could be killing that food source for the Brent geese,” warned Joyce-Kemper.
“But it’s not just that, there’s commercial fisheries just around the corner, there’s the Malahide shellfish area.”
“So it’s all of these issues and for them not to have put proper mitigations in place is really farcical at this stage.”
Joyce-Kemper said it was her “understanding that every pumping station is supposed to have a backup generator”.
“And then the telemetry is supposed to send an alarm to the monitoring station, so they can send their engineers to hook up a generator when something happens.
“That is my understanding of how a pumping station is supposed to work.
“So obviously, that’s not happening and it’s very concerning to have to revisit this issue over and over again.”
This station would have been developed on the Station Road.
An Bord Pleanála decided that the works would have represented an “unacceptable flood risk”.
The report added: “The proposed development would be prejudicial to public health and safety and would be contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area.”
Despite this, Uisce Éireann again applied for permission to develop this pumping station in July of last year, and Fingal County Council granted it permission in August.
This decision was once again referred to An Bord Pleanála.
The case was due to be decided in February but that decision has been delayed.
In a statement to The Journal, a spokesperson for An Bord Pleanála said: “This case is currently with An Bord Pleanála’s inspector.
“As soon as the inspector’s report is received, the file will be in line to go to Board for its consideration and decision.”
The spokesperson referred The Journal to a statement on the board’s website regarding ongoing delays in determining cases.
That statement notes a “significant turnover of personnel at Board level in the organisation over recent months”.
“This has resulted in restricted capacity at Board level and a consequent backlog of cases for determination,” added the statement.
Speaking to The Journal, Sabrina Joyce-Kemper said: “I have been involved in the planning process because I believe that it’s a flood plain and you shouldn’t put any sensitive infrastructure in the flood plain.”
She added: “An Bord Plenála said you can’t put strategic, sensitive infrastructure on the flood plain and we provided recent photographs of the land flooded.
“But they have still gone in again for planning on the same site.
“I don’t understand why you would do that and risk such important infrastructure, rather than putting it across the road in a location that would be more amenable.
“It’s frustrating that ordinary people have to fight for this and that a sensible approach and sustainable approach isn’t being maintained by Irish Water.”
A Flood Risk Assessment Study that was provided by Uisce Éireann with most recent planning application said that flood mitigation measures, which will include raising ground levels, are “sufficient to provide a suitable level of protection”.
In a statement to The Journal on the planning application currently being reviewed by An Bord Pleanála, a spokesperson for Fingal County Council said: “‘On 25 Aug 2022, a decision to grant permission was made by Fingal County Council on an application from Irish Water.
“An appeal was subsequently lodged on 21 September 2022 and is now under consideration by An Bord Pleanála.
“The Council has no further comments to make at this time.”
Meanwhile, an Uisce Éireann spokesperson told The Journal: “Uisce Éireann is progressing a project to construct a new pumping station at Portmarnock to meet capacity and reduce the number of SWOs.
“The project continues to progress through the statutory planning and approvals process.”
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