Irish Water dispute claims raw sewage was pumped into River Boyne

LOUISE WALSH
Angry Meath anglers are campaigning to stop the alleged release of untreated sewage into a special area of conservation on the River Boyne - just upstream from where children paddled last week.

Navan anglers have posted stomach-churning images of sewage floating on top of the river as well as condoms, sanitary towels. tampons and baby wipes, which they say have been released from an over-capacity pumping station at Blackcastle, along the town’s scenic Ramparts walkway.

 

Irish Water deny any such discharge took place. 

The waste witnessed by Meath Chronicle last Monday (5th) skims the river near where they say, young children paddled last week and in a waterway valued for its stocks of salmon, brown trout, eel and bream.
They allege that the controlled release is operated on a regular basis but the sewage is prevalent this time because the river is low due to lack of rain.
The latest spillages, they say, occurred on the last two Saturday nights, ahead of any forecast rain.

The pumping station has been the focus of investigations by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) in past times
In 2012 Meath Co. Council stated that the discharge from the overflow at the pumping station was 'normal and permissible as, at such times, the flows are very high and hence the overflow discharges are very dilute. In addition, the overflow discharges are screened.'

However Navan Anglers, supported by 17 clubs in the Joint Boyne Council have stepped up their campaign for the discharge to be stopped and have dared authorities to drink a glass of water from the river.
'It's absolutely sickening to see sanitary towels, feces, baby wipes, condoms and more being released by authorities into one of the most historic rivers in Ireland, the Boyne which is a special area of conservation,' said club secretary Simon Cassidy.

'The pumping station is supposed to pump the sewage to the sewerage treatment plant but when it comes to capacity, the overflow goes into the Boyne. Instead, it should be trucked away.
'The authorities will say it's not breaking any laws and that the sewage is being diluted by the heavy rain. This time there was no rain so the waste is lodging on the riverbed and along the river.
'There was children paddling in the water downstream from where this waste was. How bad is that? And what damage is it doing to the food chain? It's killing the fly life that hatch there.

'If you throw a bag of rubbish out, you can be fined. So what are the authorities doing here, if not littering and polluting,' he asked.
'We would love to bring any of the authorities down here and dare them to drink a glass of water from the river.'

In the image above (brown-coloured effluent can be seen coming from a waste pipe at Blackcastle Pumping Station and flowing into the river.

The anglers say they have already lodged formal complaints with the EPA, Inland Fisheries, the National Parks and Wildlife Service and Irish Water.
Now they are again lobbying local councillors and politicians to put an end to the practice and have started a petition online which can be accessed at the following link
https://www.gopetition.com/petitions/raw-sewage-been-pumped-into-the-river-boyne-at-blackcastle-demesne-navan.html
Inland Fisheries Ireland said: 'We were notified about an incident last weekend but I understand there was another this weekend.
'Unfortunately this problem appears to occur at times of heavy rainfall. We have been engaging with Irish Water and the Environmental Protection Agency on a constant and consistent basis with regard to this issue.'

In a statement to Meath Chronicle which came too late for our print edition, Irish Water stated: 

'Irish Water can confirm that the Blackcastle Pump Station did not overflow at the weekend of the 3rd 4th or 5th June 2017. Today (June 7th)  engineers carried out inspections of the  River Boyne around the Blackcastle Pumping Station and can confirm that there is no sewage in the river.

'From these inspections the most likely cause of the brown debris in the river is from the soil that was stripped and cleared in fields  adjacent to the river in recent months that then got washed in to the river due to recent heavy rainfall. Irish Water has monitors and alarms in place on the Blackcastle Pumping station that would alert us if an overflow did arise.

'We wish to reassure customers that the Blackcastle Pumping Station is in full compliance with the EPA wastewater discharge licence.

 

However, the EPA received complaints with photographs supplied about discharges that took into the river on or before 2nd June and forwarded anglers complaints on to Irish Water. The utility's response was to say no discharge had taken place over the weekend (3rd, 4th, 5th June)

The full response from the EPA (Environmental Protection Services) said: 

'The Waste Water Discharge Licence (WWDL) for Navan includes a storm water overflow (SW-03) to the River Boyne from the Blackcastle Pump Station (PS). Collection networks have storm water overflows such as which are designed to overflow during periods of heavy rainfall. An emergency overflow (EO) can occur at pumping stations from a breakdown of equipment in the pump station or blockage in the sewer network.

 

'The EPA are aware of concerns from local of anglers, IFI and others in relation to discharges from the sewage pump station at Blackcastle, Navan. The EPA requested Irish Water to investigate these concerns and are awaiting a report on the performance of Blackcastle pumping station from IW which is due by the 16/06/2017. This report should assess the operation of the pump station to ensure that the infrastructure is designed and operated in line with best practice and does not cause environmental pollution. IW has advised that inflows and outflows into the Blackcastle pump station are screened to remove gross solids.

'Photographs of debris in the Boyne received by the EPA on the 02/06/2017 in relation to the water pollution have been forwarded to IW for their investigation and to report on in the pump station assessment referred to above. IW confirmed today that based on their investigations so far there were no overflows from the Blackcastle pumping station over last weekend (3-4 June) and that both screens on the pumping station inlet and outlet were operational over both.'