Stench of neglect
Locals have been complaining about a foul sewer smell at one of Ireland’s most scenic spots – but it took an MoS phone call for Irish Water to respond to concerns
IT is one of Ireland’s most scenic and most filmed villages, attracting hundreds of visitors every day during the summer – but recently some have been in a hurry to leave because of the bad smell.
Local business owners in the village of Leenane in Co. Galway – made famous by the Richard Harris film, The Field – say an overloaded sewage plant is responsible for noxious odours that has caused tourist buses to move on quickly from the famed beauty spot.
Breda Gaynor, proprietor of Gaynor’s, The Field Bar, revealed how a bus load of tourists arrived in the village last weekend planning on spending the evening there, but left again after one drink because of the smell.
‘To be honest I don’t blame them, it’s something we’ve been flagging repeatedly over the summers,’ she told the Irish Mail on Sunday.
‘The stage plant here was built to cater for a capacity of 550. That multiplies during the summer when we could literally have thousands of visitors in a day.’
Another local resident of the village located at the end of Ireland’s only fjord, Killary Harbour, admitted she has to keep her windows closed on some summer days because of the stench.
‘It depends which way the wind is blowing,’ said Patricia O’Brien. ‘But the smell is definitely worse in summer. I’ve seen people get out of their cars and get straight back in.’
After the issue was highlighted on local radio and by this newspaper, Irish Water this weekend confirmed the State utility company has been engaging with the local community in relation to reports of odour issues from Leenane Wastewater Treatment Plant.
A spokesman said the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had now been invited to address the issue as well.
‘Galway County Council has completed works at the pumping station,’ he told the MoS.
‘Following engagement with the EPA, on September 1, Irish Water and Galway County Council met with the EPA on site to undertake an audit of the plant.
‘In the meantime, remedial works have been ongoing at the treatment plant and a specialist contractor will also be on site in the coming days to carry out further works.
‘We understand that this is causing significant concern for people living in the area and are working as a matter of priority to resolve any potential odour issues arising from the wastewater plant or network.’
It’s the latest rap on the knuckles for the water authority after dozens of popular tourist and fishing spots were named and shamed for having ‘badly run’ stage treatment plants, by the EPA in its latest report released late last year.
It found there are 33 towns and villages in Ireland where raw sewage is released into the environment every day because they are not connected to treatment
‘The smell is definitely worse in summer’
‘Causing significant concern for people’
plants. The agency also estimates that one-third of these areas will not receive treatment until after 2024.
The most polluted bathing water is at Clifden, Co. Galway, Balbriggan and Malahide in Co. Dublin and Dunmore East in Co. Waterford.
Two of Galway’s beaches, Spiddal and Clifden, are branded ‘persistent offenders’.
In its analysis of urban wastewater treatment last year, the EPA was critical of Irish Water’s ‘unacceptable delays’ and says the pace at which essential improvements in wastewater treatment are being delivered is too slow.