Families at ‘end of tether’ over sewage
RESIDENTS at the Racecourse Road are fed up with raw sewage from the nearby Ath Leathan housing estate flowing into their properties.
Louth County Council sent out a tanker to remove the sewage on Saturday evening after two families complained that a problem with the pumping station in Ath Leathan meant that untreated effluent was backing up into their drains and spilling out over manholes.
This, according to Peter and Margaret Hughes, is an on-going problem which has happened on a number of occasions since the private estate with a 120 houses and 72 apartments was built.
‘We’re at the end of our tether,’ said Peter, explaining that the sewage is backing up since the pumping station in the nearby estate stopped working about two weeks ago.
He said that the family can’t use the toilet, take a shower or use the washing machine for fear that it will exacerbate the situation.
‘ The backyard is full of raw sewage and the smell outside is dreadful.’
While welcoming the local authority’s decision to send a tanker to clear away the sewage, Peter said it was only ‘a sticking plaster’.
A short distance away, raw sewage has also overflowed into the yard of the house belonging to pensioner Rosemary McGee and is seeping into a drain.
Alan Grehan of Oriel Property Management which is responsible for Ath Leathan said that they were aware of the problem and were working to resolve.
He explained that the pump- ing station had stopped working because residents in the estate where flushing items down the toilet which were blocking the drains, revealing that a jumper and a piece of timber were among the items removed from the drains.
He said that tankers would be deployed to clean up the area.