Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION Agency (EPA) has warned that plumes will continue to appear in Dublin Bay until an upgrade to the Ringsend waste water treatment plant is complete.
The agency conducted an inspection at the facility yesterday after it received a report that a brown plume was discharging into Dublin Bay from the plant, the third such occurrence this year.
In a statement today, the EPA said that it had taken a sample of waste water discharged from the plant, and attributed the latest plume to an overload at the plant.
“The overloaded plant was operating as normal, there was no recent breakdown or failure of equipment at the plant, and all waste water was passing through the treatment process,” the agency said.
“The plume was attributed to the overloaded plant not being capable of consistently treating the waste water to the required standards.”
The agency has previously said that the plant is failing to meet national and European treatment standards because it is not big enough to treat all of the wastewater it receives.
This week’s spillage follows similar spills in February and last month.
The plant treats approximately 40% of the country’s sewage, and Irish Water is investing hundreds of millions of Euro as part of a staged upgrade of the facility to allow the wastewater of an additional 400,000 people to be treated.
Further improvements to bring the treatment capacity up to serve 2.4 million people are expected to be completed by 2023.
However, the EPA said that plumes will continue to be visible in water near the plant until these works are finished.
“Waste water discharged from the plant is breaching, and will continue to breach, the quality standards until the upgrade works are complete,” it said.
“It is likely therefore that there may be a visible plume from time to time near the discharge point until the plant upgrade is complete.”
In a separate statement, Irish Water said it would carry out cleaning works at the plant in the coming days to deal with current odour issues and to reduce the risk of odours from other debris over the summer.
The works involve cleaning the storm water holding tanks, which currently contain a large amount of debris following the heavy rainfalls last month.
“Unfortunately, the process of removing the debris from the tanks may create a certain amount of odour and Irish Water apologises to people in the area for any inconvenience caused,” Irish Water’s regional operations lead John O’Donoghue said.
The utility added that the works would start immediately and take approximately one week to finish.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Great speech by An Taoiseach, in front of the world. Well written and well delivered. He has done Ireland proud.
@Alan Brogan: yes he has done a certain type of person proud. But not the many.
@Alan Brogan: but that’s exactly what it was a speech, nothing more nothing less, I’m sure President Trump is quite aware of the goings on on this little island of ours and how Enda is coming to the end of the road and not very popular at home at all, that’s how it seemed to me, a man of very little significance to him who jumped on the band wagon with the “racist” word, Trump doesn’t forget, he likes Ireland and has vested interests here and regardless of an invitation from Kenny or anyone else I’m sure we’ll be seeing him during his term…..
Well knock me down with a feather. Has Enda Kenny actually done something useful?
Enda Kenny is a national embarassment
I thought it was a good speech…
@Sifletch: It certainly was. Diplomatically it was a great speech. You dont go to the white house and condemn the man child in front of the worlds press. You remind him as kenny did that America has been seen for generations as a place of refuge. You remind him that millions have gone and made new lives there. You remind him of its awesome responsibility as a world power. For all those criticising Kenny, this is the best way to pressure Trump. Anyone expecting him to show up and start grandstanding about racism etc doesn’t understand much. He was right when he called Trump out here. He would have been wrong to start it in the white house. Kenny has left it late but he did us proud today.
Enda the snake. Not my Taoiseach.
@Ian Walsh: afraid he is. Whether you like it or not. That’s democracy
@Ian Walsh: I met a man with two bowls of shamrock who was going to give them to the troops guarding the A T M s !!!!!!!!!
Fair play to Kenny. Did a very good job when a lot of naysayers said he wouldn’t.
Anyone else notice how even though he was addressing Trump in his speech he never actually looked at him?!?, almost as if he wasn’t even in the room, awkward at best, Trump’s body language says it all…..
@Kate Flaherty: Yes did not once even glance at Trump….I suppose Enda really misses Obama…All of Enda’ s media advisers would also really dislike Trump so Enda is scared of offending the Irish media by being too friendly…..Still it was a good speech some good lines in it…
Plonker
With a little practice, it’s very easy to make a speech that’s been written for you.
When Ends goes off script, we see him for what he is: a little man who is way out of his depth.
What about the “wretched refuse” being held in our Direct Provision Centres? Where’s the compassion for them? Have they not been deprived of liberty, opportunity and safety in their own countries? The hypocrisy around this issue insults us all.
@Cormac Behan: red thumb…..
@Cormac Behan: It was nothing to do about people here in direct provision centres, it is Kenny showing his ignorance by addressing Illegal Irish migrants who are illegally in The US which in turn us open to be scammed by others who don’t respect the laws of countries they want to take advantage of them.
Compassion for people who have lied through their teeth in order to stay here? They’ve been refused and have no right to be here .
@Suzie Sunshine: great show of compassion!
@Jho Harris: clearly the irony was lost on you!
@Charles Alexander: I have no compassion for scammers, sorry .
@Suzie Sunshine: in fairness, there were plenty of scammers in the country long before we ‘opened’ our doors to asylum seekers.
@Charles Alexander: correct but unfortunately we can’t deport our own ..
@Charles Alexandesee Most of us know about the home grown scammers but why allow more in to rip us off. What the hell did you mean me not getting irony? Do you see something amusing in having a stupid Taoiseach, I certainly don’t find it endearing to see Kenny looking to make a case for illegal Irish in The US while we are by design stopped for getting rid of those who are illegal here, a cohort that are most made welcome here by The Immigrant Council here.
@Jho Harris: the irony is that he wants Trump to deal with the issue concerning the undocumented Irish yet he avoids the issue concerning the undocumented in his own country.
Did that really need explaining?
While I’m not a huge fan of Enda, I think this was his finest hour. Delighted he had the balls to do this.
Whoever wrote Endas speech done a great job lol :-)
The long good bye?
@Gerry Fitz: gonna miss him that’s for sure ,rescued the country, but like that other great man churchill not really appreciated at home
His and our own record on migration is pitiful. The hypocrisy of this speech is galling. Direct Provisioning and one of the lowest rates of refugee admissions in europe is preposterous given our own history.
@Peter McGlynn: i agree more muslims is what we need,now that the catholic church is finished here.we need a real dominant religion and islam seems a good fit for ireland
Yeah, Scarlet, cause they have been doing in every other country. Good trolling.
@Dave Murray: not really good trolling .. too obvious!
Excellent well written speech enda, hope you stay on for another 5 year
@Patricia Butler: So you want the EU to continue with an unelected government of green communists? Is that it?
Poor Ends must be peeved at the lack of coverage his visit garnered internationally, indeed it would seem Brian Dobbs was the only person covering this absurd trip, poor Brian couldn’t even get a recognisable guest to interview in what must have been an expensive excursion to Washington.God all mighty when this nonsense going to end. Just watching Merkels visit and my word the international press are in a frenzy. Good riddens enda, good riddance to mediocrity.
Very nicely done! Enda Kenny for Taoiseach!! Oh wait…
An impassioned speech it was but will it actually have any affect at all with the Irish illegals? Will Trump even give a crap what Kenny said?
@Cormac Behan: Very well put!
Ireland always speaks on a professional level…
Does he keep saying Predident..? Like with a d instead of an s?
Has Enda seen the amount of poor wretches sleeping on our streets right now? Instead of moaning to Trump he should be back here fixing the mess our inept governments have made of the country.
I thought he pressed the case for Irish illegals in a balances way. I did not see it as a lecture, but a plea and I think Trump understood.
Where he did lecture in a disgusting way was on the glories of the EU. A decrepit politically entity which is undemocratic has no place in a lecture to an elected president of the free world.
what “lecture”?
have your say