With concerns growing that expansion of Galway’s eastern suburbs will be hampered by poor drainage infrastructure, Uisce Éireann has promised revised solutions for the district’s over-burdened waste water system.
After withdrawing its planning application for a giant waste water tank in Merlin Park last week, Ireland’s national water authority says it will submit a revised application to Galway City Council “in the coming months”.
The initial application was for an almost one million litre tank designed to temporarily store quantities of waste water during rainy days so as not to overwhelm pumping stations. These pumps divert liquids to Mutton Island sewage treatment plant. When overwhelmed, a mixture of sewage and rainwater is discharged raw into the River Corrib and Galway Bay instead.
The 164 hectare greenfield site of Ardaun – 5km east from the city centre – has been earmarked for massive residential development, with plans for more than 4,600 new homes in the pipeline since 2018. This could home a population of more than 12,600 souls, in a stroke increasing the city’s population by more than 14%.
“It’s not just Ardaun we’re worried about,” says an Taisce Galway volunteer Peter Butler. “Doughiska, Oranmore, Garraun and Roscam are all areas where more housing is promised. We need the homes, but we have to know the infrastructure is there and has capacity to cope. We already have to deal with regular discharges of waste water at Oranmore, Ballyloughane and the Cladddagh,” he says. “Look at what happened when Balllybane’s drainage was built with rainwater mixed with foul water. To fix that now would entail disruption on the scale of World War Two.”
Butler, an engineer, welcomed plans for revisions to waste water storage plans, and called on Uisce Éireann and Galway City Council to explain the calculations used for planning waste water storage and management.
A spokeswoman for Uisce Éireann said the agency is revising its plans for both wastewater services and the public drinking water system for Galway city’s eastern suburbs.
“[We are] committed to advancing the design of the Ardaun project to upgrade the wastewater network and enable future growth and development in the region. We will be submitting a revised planning application in the coming months and will provide further details as the project progresses,” she said.
The utility did not respond to queries on the exact capabilities of its current and planned waste water storage tanks in Galway city. It is understood these figures will allow private housing scheme developers and observers to calculate planned infrastructure drainage capacity, and thereby influence future planning applications or objections.
