This article is from page 16 of the 2009-06-09 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 16 JPG
PLANS and a timeframe have been announced for a €2 million upgrade of the Ennis/Clarecastle main drain- age scheme.
The work, due to commence in early 2010, will be carried out at the Clonroadmore Wastewater ‘Treat- ment Plant.
Sean Ward, Senior Engineer with Clare County Council, told last Tuesday’s meeting of Ennis Town Council that the work should be completed by the end of 2010 or early 2011.
Mr Ward said the council was opt- ing to upgrade the drainage scheme on an incremental basis, as it was unlikely that the Department of En- vironment, Heritage and Local Gov- ernment would approve the €60 mil- lion required for a large-scale water treatment plant at Clareabbey.
Mr Ward said that when complete, the new interim treatment plant and the current water treamtnent stations would provide water treatment serv- ices for a total population of 37,500.
He said that this should be more than enough capacity to cater for En- nis as the population of the town was
now not expected to grow as fast as previously expected.
Mr Ward said the council was also concerned about untreated waste- water being pumped into the River Fergus. He stated that if the process continued, Clare was in danger of failing to meet mandatory European Union standards on water quality.
At the meeting, former Green Party councillor Donal O Bearra asked if the new network would mean an end to untreated sewage being released into a section of the River Fergus near the Francis Street pumping sta- tion.
In response, Mr Ward said, “The short term upgrade won’t guarantee that storm overflow from the Francis Street station will not be released. I’m fairly confident there will be less frequency, but it won’t stop com- pletely.”
Mr Ward added that there are plans to upgrade facilities at the Francis Street station.
County Manager, Tom Coughlan said that an upgrade of the Ennis Clarecastle Main Drainage Scheme was first proposed in 1995.
Despite criticism from some coun- cillors that the entire Clareabbey
project had not received approval, Mr Coughlan defended the council’s decision to carry out improvements on a phased basis.
“It’s been going on for almost 14 years now. We had to look at an al- ternative because in the current cli- mate, to go to the department look- ing for €60 million isn’t going to happen,” he said.
Mr Coughlan said there was cur- rently excess capacity in the sewage network for Ennis and its environs as many planning permissions that had previously been granted, had not been taken up by applicants.