Photo by Eric Jones via Wikimedia Commons
Residents of Dublin 4 can have their voice heard by participating in the Irish Water consultation on the Ringsend Wastewater Treatment Plant Upgrade Project. They can do this by making a submission with their feedback on the project scoping documents.
In 2014, Irish Water assumed responsibility for the Ringsend Wastewater Treatment Plant Upgrade Project from Dublin City Council, which has been providing wastewater treatment to Dublin since 2016. This plant is the largest treatment plant in Ireland and treats wastewater from the Greater Dublin Area and parts of Meath.
However, the plant has now run into an issue that it needs to be upgraded, as it is operating over its design capacity. This will meet the infrastructural requirements for the plant to treat the amount of wastewater that will need to be generated to deal with the growing population and industrial needs of the area. Such measures are needed to ensure the safety of human health and the protection of the environment.
Irish Water’s current plan is to use Aerobic Granular Sludge technology to allow the treated wastewater to stay at its current location rather than building expensive tunnels to discharge it. An advantage of this is that the wastewater can be treated at a higher standard, and instead of discharging it 9km out into Dublin Bay it can be done so from its current location on the Lower Liffey Estuary.
Such measures will significantly maximise efficiency, reduce risk and save money, as well as producing a higher quality of treated wastewater. They also allow for the recovery of the non-renewable energy source phosphorus, which would otherwise be discharged into Dublin Bay and could not then be reused in agriculture.
The team involved in the project wish to learn the opinions of the locals on the issues of environmental issues that should be contained in the EIS that have not been mentioned in the scoping document, additional or alternative methodologies that should be used to assess environmental aspects and other information or projects that are relevant in the development of EIS/NIS.
Anyone who wishes to contribute to this can do so by emailing info@ringsendproject.ie or posting to the address: Ringsend Project, PO Box 11561, Dublin 8.
Submissions must be made before Tuesday 17 May to be addressed in the Environmental Impact Statement and the Natura Impact Statement.
Irish Water will also be hosting the following open days where residents can get first hand information about the upgrade of the Ringsend Wastewater Treatment Plant:
Marine Hotel, Sutton: Thursday, 21st April 2016 from 10am to 2pm
Clasac Centre, Clontarf: Thursday, 21st April 2016 from 4pm to 7pm
SPORTSCO, Ringsend: Saturday, 23rd April from 10am to 6pm
Fitzpatrick Castle Hotel, Killiney: Tuesday, 26th April 2016 from 10am to 2pm
Royal Marine Hotel, Dún Laoghaire: Tuesday, 26th April 2016 from 4pm to 8pm
Anyone seeking further information can contact Irish Water directly by calling 1890 989 310 or (01) 453 7063, or at the website www.water.ie/ringsend.
By Kevin Carney
