IRRESPONSIBLE local authorities who continue to discharge sewage into rivers and lakes are to be prosecuted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The State's environment watchdog is being handed tough new powers to go after rogue councils whose sewage discharges are continuing to poison tap water and killing off fish, it was revealed yesterday.
For the first time, councils will need a licence if they want to continue discharging sewage effluent. Until now, such pollution licences were confined to industries.
Courts
If the councils are unable to guarantee the discharges will not pollute the rivers and lakes they will be brought before the courts.
Every local authority in the country has, within the past two weeks, been ordered by the EPA to supply the agency with full details of drinking water sources where the treatment process fails to remove the deadly cryptosporidium parasite.
The councils have also been told to explain what plans they have to deal with the problem and what funding is in place.
There is growing concern over the level of tap water contaminated by cryptosporidium parasites from local authority sewage and farm fertilisers.
Aggressive
Dara Lynott, director of the Office of Environmental Enforcement attached to the EPA, warned yesterday that the councils must provide an aggressive schedule for cleaning up their sewage discharges.
"If this does not happen they will face prosecutions," he said at the launch of the EPA's strategy to protect Ireland's environment.
"We will chase them down," added the EPA chief.
According to Mr Lynott yesterday the problem is not confined to public supplies and extended to private group schemes.
He said that 40pc of group water schemes were found to be contaminated by e-coli at least once.
New legislation meant that the operators of such private schemes were liable if they failed to inform householders or the local authority about any contamination problems and would also be liable in the event of a person falling sick from drinking water supplied by the scheme.
Treacy Hogan
Irish Independent
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