Michael Ring T.D, Minister of State for Tourism & Sport has welcomed confirmation from Irish Water that the preferred tender for the development of the new €9 million waste water treatment plant in Belmullet will be decided within the next week and the contract will be signed within a number of weeks thereafter.
Minister Ring said he is delighted that the project, which has been mooted for the past 20 years, will finally begin later this year. "John Tierney, Managing Director of Irish Water confirmed that a new waste water treatment plant would be developed on a greenfield site (2,500PE ) in Belmullet. This includes the construction of two new pumping stations, the construction of new foul sewers, the rehabilitation of existing foul sewers and making the existing foul sewers and the existing pumping station redundant. The project was tendered in September 2015 and tenders were returned to Irish Water in November 2015. The scope of the contract included for a design and build works and a two year operation and maintenance period following the design and build phase."
He went on to say, "There has been great difficulty with the present system where the existing wastewater collection system collects foul and combined sewers from the town into one outfall which currently discharges untreated effluent into Inner Broadhaven Bay via the Quay. In addition to the main discharge from the collection network to Broadhaven Bay, there are also storm overflows that discharge to Broadhaven Bay and Blacksod Bay, which are both Special Areas of Conservation and designated Shellfish Waters. This is an issue I have been working on for some time and the fact it will now progress this year is very positive news for the area," concluded Minister Ring.
