Local Councillor, Joe Newman, this week expressed his “real concerns” with the ability of the Swords sewerage system to cope with current levels of demand let alone be able to deal with the extra capacity required for current planned housing.
llr Newman said: “The big problem is that foul water at times enters the surface water network and feeds directly into the Ward River upstream of the Swords Wastewater Treatment Plant.
“This in fact, means that untreated sewage during heavy rainfall contaminates the Ward River which could have a detrimental effect on natural habitats of wildlife in the Swords Estuary.”
Newman submitted a motion last week demanding, that the CEO of the local authority report on what actions the council was taking to address these issues.
The Chief Executive of the council provided a report confirming that, there are indeed cases where untreated sewage was contaminating the surface water network.
the report went on say when council crews who are responsible for storm water networks come across these misconnections that they are reported to Irish Water to resolve.
Cllr Newman said: “Irish Water also confirmed that, they are aware of a number of these misconnections and say they are collaborating with developers in an effort to create extra network capacity, but they claim that it is up to the local authority to deal with the source of contamination that is on private property.”
The Swords councillor added: “There is a whole lot of kicking the problem backwards and forwards here.
“I am calling on Irish Water to sort this problem out before we have an environmental disaster in North County Dublin.”
Cllr Newman also called on the local authority to “put whatever pressure is necessary on Irish Water to solve these profoundly serious water hazards in the North County”.
Cllr Newman’s motion called on the chief executive of Fingal County Council to “report as to whataction is being taken by the council in partnership with Irish Water to address the issues of misconnections within the foul/wastewater and surface water network in Swords.”.
In response, the council executive issued a report, stating: “Misconnections of foul to storm water pipes and network are a matter for Irish Water to address.
“Irish Water and Fingal County Council are working collaboratively in reducing the number of foul to storm/surface water misconnections within the various networks.”
