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Minister quizzed on Athlone's raw sewage shame

by Adrian Cusack  Updated: Wednesday, 12th October, 2011 5:30pm

A pipe in the Shannon south of the Lock on the West Bank - one of the locations where sewage is discharged into the river during times of heavy rainfall.

Environment Minister Phil Hogan has been questioned about the problem of raw sewage being discharged into the River Shannon in Athlone during times of heavy rainfall.

Minister Hogan said the issue would be resolved by Westmeath County Council's planned Athlone Sewerage Scheme upgrade - but it's not clear when that work is likely to start as its Project Inception Report is still being considered by the Department of the Environment.

In June, the Westmeath Independent reported that deficiencies in the town's outdated sewerage system meant a mixture of storm water and raw sewage flows from the sewer network directly into the Shannon and the Athlone Canal at eight locations during heavy rain.

Local TD Nicky McFadden raised this topic in the Dáil recently, requesting Minister Hogan's views on it and asking whether an alternative method of dealing with sewage would be used in Athlone.

The Minister's written response stated that The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) monitored pollution from storm water overflows and the Department had also published a set of guidelines on the topic.

He indicated that the sewage outflows in Athlone did not comply with the standards issued by the Department.

"The licence issued by the EPA to Westmeath County Council requires some improvement works to ensure that a number of such discharges conform to the Departmental performance standards," he stated.

"It is proposed to address these issues as part of the upgrade of the Athlone Sewerage Scheme which is included in my Department's Water Services Investment Programme 2010-2012.

"The Athlone Sewerage Scheme provides for a combination of new sewers, sewer replacement and provision of storm water holding tank to contain excess storm flow and return it to the sewer network - and hence to the wastewater treatment plant - when the rainfall event has passed."

The Minister concluded by saying that the elimination of the storm water and sewage outflows in Athlone "will be a major benefit" of the Athlone Sewerage Scheme.

However he did not give an indication as to when work on the sewerage scheme would commence. He stated that: "Westmeath County Council has submitted a Project Inception Report for Athlone Sewerage Scheme to my Department and this is currently under consideration."