Up to 10,000 septic tanks could be in need of upgrade

There could be up to 10,000 faulty septic tanks in Co Meath, councillors were told last week.

There are 20,000 privately owned septic tanks in the county and half of those inspected by Meath Co Council are not up to standard, but the council only has the resources to carry out 90 inspections per year.

The county's Municipal Councils received presentations over the last week at which Senior Executive Engineer, David Keyes, said that of the 20,000 privately owned septic tanks in the county, a whopping 50 per cent of them could be in need of upgrading in order to be compliant to EU standards.

Half of those inspected are not up to standard but there is just the equivalent of one full time staff member to carry out the inspections of septic tanks and other waste water treatment systems.

At a meeting of Navan Municipal District on Wednesday, Cllr Tommy Reilly called on Environment Minister Eamon Ryan to provide the local authority with more staff for the septic tank inspection programme as a matter of urgency.

“The fact that Meath Co Council has just one staff member to deal with all of this in Meath is absolutely ridiculous,” said Cllr Reilly.

“It is imperative that we have more staff on hand to deal with this issue because if the status quo remains, it will take forever and a day before people will be in a position to upgrade their current systems, which are already not compliant,” added Cllr Reilly.

All domestic waste water treatment systems, including septic tanks, must be registered with Meath Co Council and, this year, the grant for homeowners to repair or replace their current systems was increased from €5,000 to €12,000. However, to qualify for the grant the current system in place must be inspected by Meath Co Council. Given the staff shortages, Cllr Reilly, says that homeowners wishing to upgrade or repair are being left in limbo to the detriment of our environment.

Cllr Eddie Fennessy said: "The statistics are stark. We have 20,000 sceptic tanks in the county, over half of which are pollutants in need of replacing.

"The grant system rolled out by the government covers 85 per cent of the cost of a new tank, but only after an inspection by the council has taken place.

"In fairness, 85 per cent in financial aid is a great incentive to replace a sceptic tank. However, a poorly resourced inspection schedule is preventing interested parties from doing so.

"Meath Co Council has one full time and two part-time inspectors. They have the capacity to inspect 90 tanks per year. It would take 133 years to inspect what's needed in the county."

"I intend to raise this with my colleagues in the Dáil who will lobby the minister directly, to provide Local Authorities with the resources they need."

Cllr Joe Bonner the government has made a big announcement about the huge increases in grants for improving septic tanks, but because of lack of resources for inspection, it will be extremely difficult for people to access those grants.

"People have been contacting me about faulty septic tanks but they face huge delays in access grants. What happens if their septic tank is polluting a water course," he asked.

Cllr Eugene Cassidy said that householders should be allowed employ a contractor to do an inspection. "If an inspection by a contractor is acceptable when applying for planning permission, it should also be acceptable in this case."

Cllr Sean Drew said until they allow for the privatisation of inspections, they will only "be nibbling at the problem".