Residents cry foul on plant odour
Cavan residents are growing increasingly irate at the lingering stench of sewage from Cavan Town’s Wastewater Treatment Plant, while crews on the ground work to resolve the issues. Reporter Michelle Taite visited the area last Thursday to sniff out the story for herself...
The “pong”, detected for the past number of months, has worsened in recent days, making it impossible for residents to ignore.
Mal Lowry, chairman of Carrickane & District Residents Association, lives in the area and has received countless messages and calls from households in the vicinity regarding the stench.
The Celt visited him and others last Thursday. Flicking through the countless messages he received from upset neighbours, Mal read one aloud: ‘The smell appears to be worse today. I find it quite sickening.’
The chairman elaborated: “We have been contacted by a number of our residents saying that they think the smell is getting worse. We have noticed this smell since before Christmas. It is not new, it had seemed to dissipate or reduce just post Christmas and coming into the new year but in the last number of days it has gotten very bad.
“The degree of discomfort it is causing is terrible. We would like to get answers to it and we do need to talk to people. At this stage, we have made preliminary contact with Irish Water and the council and we are meeting very shortly, to see how we can address this because it isn’t pleasant.”
Amna Kiran lives approximately a kilometre from the plant. “It was very strong this morning,” she says.
“It’s not pleasant and it’s concerning but it’s not consistent. It was there last night as well but this morning it was very strong. It just makes me think, ‘is it our house or is it coming from somewhere else?’”
A second resident in the area, Siobhan Russell, echoed Amna’s concerns. “I got up this morning and noticed there was a smell in the house,” she says.
“I thought it was something to do with my own bathroom. I don’t really use bleach but I had a bit of bleach lying around so I put a bit of bleach into my toilet and then, when I was talking to my friend, she had said the same thing, so we thought it must be something to do with down the road. I’ve only noticed it in the last week or two, before that I hadn’t noticed it at all.”
The treatment plant is located at the entrance of a beautiful greenway, the Loreto Walk, commonly used by the residents for leisure.
“I noticed it when I was going walking with my dog down on the greenway, I put the scarf over my mouth because there was a bad smell,” continued Siobhan.
Plan to address issues
While the situation is upsetting for all of the residents in the area, Mal says they are taking a “dispassionate” approach to its resolution.
“We’re trying to just get to a solution. Everyone knows there has to be wastewater treatment plants and we appreciate that this is a part of life. It’s not nimbyism, We just want a solution to what is a very bad odour and what seems to be a malfunction. But we’d like to know what the plan is.”
Responding to the issue, a spokesperson for Irish Water said: “Process optimisation works are ongoing at the Cavan Wastewater Treatment Plant. Crews are on the ground carrying out an essential review of the current treatment processes to resolve any potential odour issues as quickly as possible.”
“Uisce Éireann, working closely with Cavan County Council is committed to resolving any potential odour issues at the plant due to increased loads from the sewer network.”
They ask, if odours are detected, to immediately contact the Uisce Éireann Customer Care Centre helpline, open 24/7, on 1800 278 278 in real time. Customers can also contact the team on Twitter @IWCare with any queries.
“Real time reporting allows for the investigation of the reported odour as close to the time of the incident as possible,” said the spokesperson.
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