Sewage system in Offaly town nears full capacity

JUST 500 extra people in Edenderry will put the town's sewage system at full capacity, it has been learned.

Local councillors have also been told that it will be 2024 at the earliest before Edenderry's wastewater treatment plant is expanded to cope with a larger population.

Currently the plant's capacity is 9,800, Mary Hussey, senior engineer, told a meeting of the Edenderry Municipal District and the current load on it is “just around 9,300”.

Ms Hussey said the plant is on Irish Water's programme for an upgrade but the project is at an early stage with tenders for consultants being prepared.

Irish Water's “project charter” is examining a 10-year timeline, where the upgraded plant would have capacity for a population of 11,940, or a 20-year option, with a 12,960 capacity.

Irish Water will next appoint a consultant engineer to carry out a feasibility study and Ms Hussey said she hopes that will happen by the end of the first quarter of 2021.

Then the scheme will be designed and tender documents for the construction will be prepared, followed by tender, appointment of a contractor and construction.

“It's looking like construction will commence no earlier than 2024,” said Ms Hussey.

Cllr Noel Cribbin, Fine Gael, said he would be a “bit concerned” about a timescale stretching to 2024 given that “we're nearly up to capacity now”.

Cllr Cribbin said he would be happy with a 3,000 population capacity increase if the 20-year upgrade option is adopted but at the same time, the extra capacity of only 500 until 2024 seemed tight.

“We've a couple of applications in there now and you wouldn't be long getting 500 in a town like Edenderry if you had a couple of applications for a couple of hundred houses,” said the councillor.

The old Tesco site will be knocked and there are “a lot of things going on in Edenderry”, he warned.

Cllr John Foley, Cathaoirleach, concurred and cited the example of growth already happening in the town.

“Down the Dublin road all the units at the back of Tesco are full and that's only after happening in the last couple of months and they've been there lying idle,” said Cllr Coley.

The Cathaoirleach suggested that efforts should be made to separate surface water which is currently “being unnecessarily treated” in the sewage plant.

“If that was done and dealt with you'd certainly open up your plant for a bigger capacity of the raw sewage.”

The Independent councillor said there was now an established trend of people working from home and he urged the council to examine the issue of treating the surface water separately “sooner rather than later”.

Replying to a query from Cllr Liam Quinn, Ms Hussey said Irish Water might design an upgrade for the 10-year projection initially but with the ability to add to it to meet the 20-year projection.

She said she will be attending a workshop on the matter with the utility later this month and hopes to get more clarity.

Cllr Quinn said a target capacity of over 11,500 is more realistic than previous figures he had heard and it exceeded the population targets for Edenderry in the regional planning guidelines.

“I'd be happy the town wouldn't be losing out.”

Also, councillors welcomed the long awaited local work to alleviate flooding in Greenwood Park.

Both Cllr Cribbin and Cllr Foley praised the work which had been carried out and hoped it will alleviate what had been a long running problem for some residents.