I thank the Chair for allowing me raise this matter of deep concern. I wish to share my time with Deputy Deasy.
Adjournment Debate. - Tramore (Waterford) Sewerage Scheme.
I am sure that is satisfactory and agreed.
I was expecting the Minister for the Environment, Deputy Howlin, to be here to reply to this matter; I am disappointed he is not.
I will explain the reason for his absence in my reply.
I wish to make it clear at the outset that the plan for the outflow pipe attaching to the new sewage treatment plant proposal in Tramore, County Waterford, which exits at Sallins is unacceptable and in my view will not proceed. The Minister may be aware that to date approximately 17,000 signatures have been collected on this issue. Those signatures were not sought; they were given voluntarily because concern about this issue has spread alarmingly throughout the greater area of Tramore, Waterford and Dunmore East.
I cannot understand the reason the Department of the Environment has not consulted Waterford County Council with regard to identifying an alternative location for this plant; alternative locations are available. The Minister may be aware that for a number of years, since the beginning of this project, the Department of the Marine has considered the questions that arise with regard to the ecosystem in the area. It is my understanding also that, on solid grounds, the technical staff in the Department is opposed to this proposal in the context of the outflow pipe at Sallins.
Under EU Directive 92/43, which deals with habitat areas, and in the context of the area's ecosystem — it is also an SPA area — it is prohibited to locate such a development there. Given all these factors it is surprising that the Minister for the Environment, as the guardian of the environment, has not taken a more forceful role in regard to this issue and accepted that the plan for the outflow pipe is not suitable and an alternative should be pursued. Many people wonder why the existing pipeline is not being used, and extended, as the vehicle to convey the outflow from the new sewage treatment plant. That seems to be a logical solution and one which would be acceptable.
I realise we do not have unlimited funding but if this is a matter of a small amount of money not being available, I would have expected the Minister for the Environment to put up a strong fight on the side of the environment as opposed to the financial practicalities.
The Minister should take note of what happened in regard to Mutton Island in Galway. The position there may not be exactly the same as this but some of the principles involved are identical. The Minister should learn from that, stop the prevarication and allow an extension of the old outfall pipe.
The natural resources of Tramore are its beach, sand dunes, sand hills — better known as the Burrows — and its back strand. We do not want the ecology of this beautiful area destroyed and this proposal may well result in that. The unanimous opinion of the people of Tramore, the area surrounding Sallins and the people of Waterford city, for whom it is a leisure area, do not want sewage to be disposed of in the area of Rinnashark Bay. We want an extention of the old outfall pipe.
We urgently need a sewerage scheme. Officials from the European Union, in particular the Commissioner in charge of the environment and ecology, should come to Tramore and see how the EU funding is being spent. There has been a total outlay of £6.7 million and we are told it will cost a further £1.5 million if the route we are proposing is used. I suggest it is worth that £1.5 million, and that is what should be done.
With Deputy Cullen I appeal to the Minister to accept the unanimous view of the people and the environmentalists and give Tramore a first class sewage treatment plant. He must ensure also that the amenity of the area in question is retained.
The Minister for the Environment, Deputy Howlin, is abroad on official business, and he has asked me to express his regret at being unable to respond to this motion personally. He has asked me to reply on his behalf and to put on the record the current position, as far as the Minister is concerned, of the proposed sewerage scheme for Tramore.
At the outset, I should make it clear that it is incorrect to imply, as the text submitted by the Deputy appears to suggest, that the Department of the Environment is insisting on locating the outfall at a location that in some way threatens the environment. Both the Department and Waterford County Council are fully aware of how vital it is to protect the environment at Tramore and the scheme as proposed by the council reflects this concern.
To put the proposal and public concern about it into its correct perspective, it is important to point out that sewage in Tramore is currently collected and discharged, untreated, to the sea via a pipeline extending approximately 300 metres offshore of the main beach, which both Deputies want to protect. This is obviously unacceptable. Besides, as the population of the town, both residential and tourist, exceeds the threshold limits of the urban waste water directive, there is now a legal obligation to provide secondary treatment.
The scheme now envisaged involves the construction of a secondary treatment plant, sized to cater for a high season population of 15,000, with the final treated effluent being transferred via an 800mm storage pipeline along the northern margin of the Tramore burrow to a discharge point to the Rinnashark channel. The proposed pipeline would run for approximately 1.5km of its 2km route beyond the high water mark with the control building buried in a sand dune. The proposed discharge point into the Rinnashark channel is a location that is not frequented by bathers and has a fast flowing body of water on the ebb tide which would allow for good dispersion and rapid dilution. The final effluent would be clear and free from solids and other nuisances.
An application for a foreshore licence to discharge at Rinnashark was made by Waterford County Council to the Department of the Marine in February 1993. This discharge point was deemed environmentally and economically the best when an environmental impact statement was certified by the then Minister for the Environment in late 1992. Deputy Cullen will accept the then Minister for the Environment was a member of his own party.
We opposed it then.
Notwithstanding the EIS certification, reservations continued to be expressed about the location of the outfall and in the summer of last year, in an effort to overcome the reservations and to advance the scheme, Waterford County Council engaged consultants to undertake studies on the feasibility and desirability of adding ultraviolet disinfection facilities at the treatment works and to report back on the cost implications and possible environmental benefits if a decision were taken to proceed along these lines. Based on the consultant's report, the council decided to modify its proposal to allow for UV treatment to be added at a later stage if it were established through monitoring that it was desirable to do so.
A revised foreshore licence application, including the proposal to allow for the addition of UV disinfection, was duly lodged with the Department of the Marine by Waterford County Council on 27 February last and a final decision on the application from the Minister for the Marine is awaited.
Finally, I assure the House that the Minister for the Environment remains committed to seeing an environmentally acceptable sewage treatment plant provided for Tramore at the earliest possible date. I will pass Deputy Cullen's and Deputy Deasy's strongly held views to the Minister for the Environment. I listened to Deputy Deasy's comments about the possibility of the outfall being along the existing line. Having read the Minister's report, the Department of the Environment and the EIS maintain that the line already agreed by the EIS appears to be the one favoured environmentally. However, I will pass on the Deputies' strongly held views to the Minister for the Environment and await the outcome.