Sludge plant 'would end water crisis'

GALWAY'S water crisis could be solved if permission was granted for a controversial sludge processing plant in north Mayo, it has been claimed.

Michael Murphy of Glancre Teoranta, whose plans to develop the plant at Geesala have been rejected by Mayo County Council, says his plant could still ensure clean water for the entire west of Irelandif approval was granted. Sludge cake is the non-hazardous organic by-product of wastewater treatment.

Mayo County Council has already refused planning permission for the sludge processing plant, which would have thermally dried the sludge and converted it into a dried, granulated material which could be used as fuel to produce energy.

Mr Murphy admits that it will take a change of legislation for the plant to get the go-ahead because permission was refused on the grounds of proximity. The plant was deemed to be too distant from the places where the sludgeis produced.

Last week the Health Service Executive confirmed that children have been worst hit by the contamination of tap water in Galway by the parasite cryptosporidium.

Many of the 210 people who have been confirmed with having cryptosporidiosis are under 10 years of age. People infected with the bug suffer diarrhoea, abdominal cramps, vomiting and fever.

Health chiefs believe the real number of victims is significantly higher. It will be August at the earliest before measures are put in place to provide clean tap water.

More than 90,000 residents in the Galway area are still being advised to boil all water used for drinking, for food preparation and for brushing teeth.

According to Michael Murphy, the reason why water supplies are becoming contaminated is that wastewater plants are overloaded and because too much sludge is being spread on land. He says that more drying plants are required to deal with the increased production of sludge.

His company, Glancre Teoranta, based at the former Norsk Hydro plant at Muingmore, in Erris, Co Mayo, had been in operation for a number of years. When it began its operations manufacturing sludge pellets it did not require planning permission from Mayo County Council, who believed that, because the plant had previously been producing smokeless peat briquettes, it did not constitute a change of use.

But after a public outcry and lobbying by the Erris Action Group, whose membership included a number of senior legal figures who have holiday homes in the area, the council insisted that planning permission was required at the plant because it was a 'change of use'.

That appeal was successful and An Bord Pleanala ruled that planning permission was required to process sludge at the plant.

Glancre Teoranta appealed the decision of An Bord Pleanala to the High Court, which then upheld the view of local residents and ruled that planning permission was needed for the processing of sludge at the site.

The company then applied to the council for planning permission to alter their plant in order to process sludge. Mayo County Council refused on the grounds "that the proposed development is not considered to be in the interests of proper planning and sustainable development of the area".

Sunday Independent