Sewerage plant campaigners vow to continue legal fight against ’hell vision’

OBJECTORS to plans for a "hell vision" sewerage plant at one of Limerick’s favourite holiday spots are taking their fight to the Supreme...

OBJECTORS to plans for a “hell vision” sewerage plant at one of Limerick’s favourite holiday spots are taking their fight to the Supreme Court at a potential cost of more than €100,000.

Visitors and locals alike have waged a campaign to stop Uisce Éireann putting the plant alongside the iconic Kilkee Cliff Walk, claiming that it is not a treatment plant and raw seweage will still be pumped into the water.

The Save the Kilkee Cliff Walk campaign set up a GoFundMe page which raised nearly €100,000 to mount a High Court challenge against the decision to grant planning permission for the plant to Uisce Éireann but failed in that bid last month.

At a packed public meeting in the town on Friday last, locals, businesspeople, visitors, and holiday home owners were given a presentation on the plan and details of the next legal steps the campaign plans to take.

Organisers and attendees were stunned to hear MEP Michael McNamara tell the meeting: “ Uisce Éireann are unaccountable to anybody – and it was deliberately set up that way.”

Speaking afterwards, campaign representative Martin Busher said the issue is no longer simply about planning permission.

“This is about accountability. The people of Kilkee have repeatedly asked legitimate questions about a development that will affect the town for generations. They have proposed alternatives, commissioned expert reports at considerable expense and sought meaningful engagement. Yet Uisce Éireann continues to refuse to engage directly with the community at any level.”

Speaking to the Limerick Post , Ellie Byrne said the meeting “left people in no doubt about the hell vision that Uisce Éireann is trying to foist on us”.

She said the proposal is “jaw dropping in its contempt for the people of Kilkee. This is not a treatment plant. Nothing gets treated. The solids get separated and sloshed out three times a week to Limerick, which is already under pressure. The sludge that’s left is just pumped straight into the sea, with no treatment of pathogens or bacteria – it’s still putting raw waste into the bathing water. That’s not progress.”

Ms Byrne said that despite the failure of the judicial review, the campaigners have now applied to take the matter to the Supreme Court “and at the meeting we got full support for that”.

She added they are well aware that delving into such a judicial process will be hugely expensive. While registering papers with the Supreme Court is relatively inexpensive, the cost of the necessary top legal representation can run into more than €100,000 and double that if the applicants lose and have to pay the other side’s legal expenses.

“We ran a fundraising campaign for the expenses of the challenge and we raised almost €100,000 but more than half of that was spent on legal representation and the expert reports that were needed,” she said.

“It was a classic David and Goliath situation. We had a barrister and a solicitor – Uisce Éireann had four barristers, paid for, by the way, by us – the taxpayers. We’re a small community up against this huge arm of the State. It’s outrageous that we have to raise money to make our objections heard in a court of law but we’ll carry on. We won’t give in.”

Opponents of the plant want a “proper, tertiary treatment plant. Uisce Éireann says Kilkee needs a treatment plant – we know it does. We’ve been campaigning for that for more than a decade but this is not a treatment plant. It’s a slurry tank.”

There are also huge concerns that the nearby stream, which runs down the the shore “and which children play in” is to be used as an overflow for the tanks.

The campaign leaders claim the water company have treated the locals “with utter contempt”.

“Four days before the Judicial Review they asked to meet with us to discuss alternatives and we prepared a 40-page document and travelled to Dublin. Less than an hour before the meeting, they told us, through our solicitor, that they were not going to meet with us after all.”

The company has issued a statement on the matter but the campaign members say it skirts around their concerns.

The company’s assertation that “the delivery of this project will eliminate the discharge of unt reated wastewater into Intrinsic Bay” is described by the campaigners as “fundamentally untrue. The sludge, untreated for bacteria or pathogens or disease, will continue to be pumped into the bay in exactly the same location as it is currently. Therefore wastewater remains untreated.”

The water company statement also says that “the Kilkee scheme has been designed to accommodate future growth and meet wastewater treatment needs”.

Campaigners fundamentally dispute this assertion. They argue that Uisce Éireann’s design is based on population figures that significantly underestimate Kilkee’s peak seasonal population.

“Information obtained from Clare County Council indicates that the summer population is substantially higher than the figures used in the planning process,” campaigners say.

Campaigners contend that this has resulted in a plant designed for “a version of Kilkee that does not exist during the months when wastewater demand is at its highest”.

In it’s official statement, Uisce Éireann also said that the company “recognise and respect that there are differing views in relation to this development and look forward to engaging openly, factually, and constructively with local residents and key stakeholders in the coming months. This is a vital project to end the discharge of raw sewage at one of Ireland’s scenic locations.”

“While we don’t wish to comment further while legal proceedings are ongoing please note: Receiving waters are assessed to determine appropriate level of treatment.

“For the Kilkee project, the wastewater will undergo preliminary and primary treatment. Preliminary treatment consists of screening. It removes the large items such as rags, wipes, and rubbish from the wastewater, and protects the downstream Wastewater Treatment Plant processes from damage.

“Primary treatment removes solids from wastewater by allowing them to settle in settlement tanks, with the resulting sludge sent for further treatment. The treated wastewater is discharged to the receiving water body. The delivery of this project will eliminate the discharge of untreated wastewater into Intrinsic Bay.”

Uisce Éireann said that “the transportation of wastewater sludge is a standard and established part of wastewater operations in Ireland and internationally”.

“Sludge is routinely transported by licensed contractors to specialist treatment facilities where it can be managed safely and in compliance with environmental regulations. This internationally recognised approach supports resource recovery, environmental protection and the sustainable management of wastewater.”

The water utility said that its “objective is to provide a modern wastewater treatment solution that protects water quality and the local marine environment while upholding wastewater treatment standards”.

“Any discharge, overflow or stormwater management arrangements associated with the scheme have been assessed through the statutory planning and environmental assessment processes.

“The Kilkee scheme has been designed to accommodate future growth and meet wastewater treatment needs, supporting future residential, social, and economic development in the area while upholding wastewater treatment standard.”