Mr. Feargal Ó Coigligh:

I thank the committee for the invitation to attend today as part of the detailed scrutiny of the Bill. I am joined by my colleague, Mr. David Flynn, principal adviser. By way of preliminary comment, the Department understands and appreciates the intent behind the Private Members’ Bill, that is, to make possible and facilitate the choice of those who wish to live in rural communities outside cities, towns and villages.

In the context of the rationale behind the Bill, the Minister of State, Deputy Damien English, last week organised a meeting with Deputy Martin Kenny and a delegation of public representatives and officials from Leitrim County Council to discuss the particular challenges of providing domestic wastewater treatment systems in Leitrim.

As we heard this morning, Leitrim County Council, with the support of the EPA, has been working with Trinity College to investigate treatment systems that use willow beds. The Department agreed at the meeting last week to follow up with a more detailed technical engagement with the county council and the EPA to explore how a pilot project could be supported. The Department also noted that there was unanimity at the meeting regarding any solutions which may be developed and which do not give rise to a threat to human health and the environment. That is in line with the current general statutory requirement not to allow the deterioration of the chemical or ecological status of bodies of water bodies, such as rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal waters, and groundwater. The imperative to maintain good water quality is the right thing to do in any event in to manage risk and for the protection of human health.

The Bill seeks to make it easier to issue discharge licences under the Water Pollution Acts in cases where EPA-approved domestic wastewater treatment systems would not be adequate. However, as set out in the Department's letter to the committee, the Department is concerned that the Bill does not contain adequate safeguards to ensure Irish law is compliant with the EU water framework directive or would not give rise to potential significant threat to the environment and public health.

Ireland has high dependence on individual wastewater treatment systems. We have already been found guilty by the Court of Justice of the European Union of failure to put in place adequate safeguards for the environmental performance of these systems. The inspection regime and the current plans the Department has put in place are in response to that judgment. In 2012, the court found that Ireland had failed take the necessary measures to ensure that waste is recovered or disposed of without endangering human health and without processes or methods that could harm the environment. The judgment led to financial penalties of €2.76 million and had implications for 440,000 wastewater treatment systems serving single houses. As a result, the Water Services (Amendment) Act 2012 introduced registration and inspection arrangements for domestic wastewater treatment systems. I am highlighting this because the Bill before us seeks to amend section 4 of the Local Government (Water Pollution) Act 1977 to provide for the granting of discharge licences to surface water in order to allow for the development of single houses.

We have some experience, primarily in Wexford, where the local authority used discharge licences to facilitate house construction in the 2000s. The difficulties encountered by householders in managing licensed discharges to surface waters included the technical challenges of managing wastewater treatment systems and achieving the required effluent standard. Where difficulties were encountered, such as the malfunctioning of the domestic wastewater treatment system causing pollution to the receiving waters, significant local issues arose, including public health concerns, the use of water for livestock drinking and problems with foul odours. The majority of these licences have had to be revoked at considerable cost to householders.

Since 2009, Wexford County Council has worked in collaboration with householders to find sustainable solutions to minimise the impact of these legacy systems. In many cases, householders requested that licences be terminated because of the difficulties they have encountered in managing the systems. In these instances, alternative solutions not involving direct discharges to receiving waters have been developed in consultation with Wexford County Council. In most cases, the alternative solutions placed a significant additional financial burden on householders.

It is also important to note, as we heard from the EPA, that there are reliable and sustainable technical solutions available to those building new houses under the current regulatory framework for domestic wastewater treatment systems. In addition to septic tanks, the feasibility of using alternative treatment systems for low permeability soils, such as low pressure pipe and drip dispersal systems, has been researched. In the context of the new guidelines the EPA is developing such alternatives may be permissible for some areas that may have previously failed percolation tests and are unable to support percolation areas.

From an environmental perspective, the proposal in the Bill, as drafted, would pose a significant risk to the water quality in the receiving rivers, lakes and estuarine waters in rural areas. This is because discharges of septic tank effluents directly to surface waters generally pose a higher risk to water quality than discharging to groundwater via a septic tank percolation area. The percolation area which domestic treatment systems use is a vital component in treating and reducing the pollutant load of the wastewater effluent. Making it easier to license less safe effluent discharge options is likely to pose unacceptable risks.

Effluent discharging to surface waters from domestic-scale wastewater treatment systems poses a significant risk to the water quality in the receiving waters. The consequence is likely to be degraded quality in receiving waters, which would be contrary to our legal obligations, with all the attendant increased risks to human health. In particular, section 4(13)(a) appears to suggest that a local authority must issue a licence under section 4 of the Local Government (Water Pollution) Act 1977 regardless of whether the discharge would cause deterioration in water quality and would be contrary to any existing water policy and associated water quality standards and objectives. I heard Deputy Martin Kenny's comment on whether that was a necessity. The Department considers that it opens up an unacceptable risk. It would leave a local authority exposed to the risk of legal action for breaching its duty under a number of legislative provisions intended to protect human health and the environment. For all the foregoing reasons, the Department has significant concerns about the Bill, but we would be happy to explore these in more detail with the committee. In light of the conversations at the meeting last week, the positive attitude adopted by Leitrim County Council and the new guidelines being developed by the EPA, it seems there are opportunities to come at this issue and the particular problem facing County Leitrim in a different way that could help the situation without the need for the blunt instrument of legislation that could cause more problems than it would solve.