Vol. 577 No. 1
206 Mr. Boyle asked the Minister for the Environment Heritage and Local Government the regulations which exist regarding the siting of sewage treatment or sewage collection facilities and their recommended distance from housing; and if he is reviewing such regulations. [30646/03]
It is assumed that the question refers to domestic effluent treatment and disposal from single dwelling houses. The current standard for this is set out in recommendation SR6:1991, which was drawn up by the National Standards Authority of Ireland and which was issued by the Department by way of circular letter to each planning authority on 8 January 1992.
Recommendation SR6 indicates that septic tanks should be located not nearer than seven metres from the dwelling served and should not be nearer than 20 metres from the nearest point of any other dwelling.
The Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, has published a draft, Manual on Treatment Systems for Single Houses in 2000, which was designed to help planning authorities, builders and others to deal with the complexities of on-site systems, including packaged systems. The EPA is currently reviewing the draft manual in the light of comments received from interested parties. My intention is to call up the revised EPA manual, when available, in "Technical Guidance Document H – Drainage and Waste Water Disposal", on the national building regulations. I also understand that the National Standards Authority of Ireland, NSAI, intends at that stage to withdraw SR6: 1991 in favour of the revised manual.
