Enda’s Carnagarve Group Win Final 26-Year Victory over Sewage
Carnagarve Group
The proposal to site the Sewage Treatment Plant at Carnagarve Beach, which local people fought against for 26 years, has now been dropped.
It is final victory for Enda Craig, Don McGinley and other members of the group against overwhelming odds.
They had stacked up against them, Donegal Council (the unelected part of it), An Bord Pleannala, the Environmental Protection Agency (sic), the High Court and the Irish Government.
They defeated them all.
European Commission
Luckily, they didn’t have the EU up against them.
There was a meeting between the European Commission last November and the Department of the Environment.
Ireland was told that it must comply with EU directives over the licensing and planning permission for waste water plants.
It seems that Ireland and Donegal Council were non-Compliant.
Now, it looks like Donegal Council will have to look for some other location from whence they can dispense with treated effluent.
It is likely to be further towards the mouth of Lough Foyle.
They certainly are highly unlikely to go through the process again and try to dump it into Lough Foyle at Carnagarve.
Victory for Carnagarve Residents
The Carnagarve residents have won – finally and at last – and against all odds.
Irish Water have already started looking for a new site.
Several million Euros were spent by Donegal Council to try to get the Sewage Treatment plant put at Carnagarve.
That’s money now wasted.
Unanimous Vote
In 1990 Donegal Council’s councillors voted 12-0 that the sewage treatment plant should not be built at Carnagarve.
This was completely ignored by the unelected part of Donegal Council who went on anyway.
That decision, be the unelected part of Donegal Council, has now cost Donegal residents millions of Euros that could have been spent on the ferry or on medical services or schools or roads or plenty of other things in the area.
Wasted Millions
Instead it has just flowed out like raw sewage into the Foyle in a fight that never should have been fought.
The residents were against it. The local councillors were unanimously against it.
Now we find that the EU is against it too – but not till several million Euros were poured down the sink.
Heads should roll after this!