Ahascragh, Carraroe, Roundstone, Spiddal are discharging untreated sewage, a new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report has found.
Ten other areas in Galway have been highlighted by the EPA in the Urban Waste Water Report published today.
The fourteen areas in Galway where improvements are required to resolve environmental priorities are: Ahascragh, Athenry, Ballymoe, Carraroe, Clifden, Galway City, Glenamaddy, Gort, Loughrea, Mountbellew, Oughterard, Roundstone, Spiddal and Woodford.
Athenry, Gort and Oughterard are included in a list of 50 urban areas across Ireland that failed to meet the EU’s legally binding standards for the collection, treatment and discharge of urban waste water.
The report also found that waste water discharges were contributing factors to the poor quality of bathing waters in both Clifden Beach and Ballyloughane Beach in 2016.
Kinvara has now been connected to new treatment plants, thereby ending the discharge
of raw sewage which was highlighted in a previous report.
Clifden was removed from the list of poor bathing waters in 2015, following improvements to the town’s waste water treatment system. The bathing water quality at Clifden returned to poor status in 2016.
The EPA say that resolving these priorities requires a substantial increase in capital investment to provide the outstanding infrastructure needed to collect and treat our waste water effectively.
The agency also states that the delivery of infrastructure projects should become more efficient, so that there are no avoidable delays; and Irish Water must target improvements in the operation and maintenance of waste
water systems, where this can improve performance and effluent quality.
