Uisce Éireann’s contentious plans to construct a new Wastewater Treatment Plant in West Clare have met another stumbling block.
It comes as a Kilkee resident is now challenging the utility’s appeal to An Bord Pleanála.
Uisce Éireann is seeking a ten-year planning permission to construct a new sewerage plant and foul pumping station on a 4.5 hectare site in Foohagh, Kilkee.
The proposed access point to the plant is just 620m from Kilkee Cliff Walk, which triggered fierce opposition from the local community.
In total, Clare County Council received 140 public submissions before, refusing the application in October.
The local authority concluded that the bulk and scale of the plant was contrary to sustainable development and that Uisce Éireann had not proven the plant could handle seasonal variations in Kilkee’s population.
Despite calls from local residents to draw up new plans, the utility has appealed the decision to An Bord Pleanála, but this appeal has now been challenged by a local resident.
In the application, Uisce Éireann has promised to provide an overflow from its storage tank to Victoria Stream.
But John Williams, of Atlantic View, says this has led to the closure of Kilkee Beach in the past “This basically is a retention of the status quo when Kilkee beach has been closed regularly during peak holiday season over the past number of years. In the past Uisce Eireann has apologised for the overflow into the Victoria Stream which caused Clare Co Council to take this drastic closure action. Were this application to be allowed to go through unamended Uisce Eireann would never have to apologise again, when this happens, because it would have a statutory right under planning legislation to release overflow when it was considered an emergency. This is surely a retrograde step”, and says the planning should be contingent on effective engineering and an outright prohibition on any effluent release outside of a closed system.
Uisce Éireann had initially hoped to deliver a new WWTP in Kilkee by 2027 in order “to stop the discharge of effluent into maritime areas.
The construction phase has been estimated to take 18 to 24 months.
