Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No. 26:

In page 80, line 35, after "subsection (1)," to insert the following:

"fails to comply with a requirement applied by regulations under subsection (14),".

The purpose of these two linked amendments is to enable the Minister to make regulations to add specified classes of domestic discharges or storm water to subsection (1) for the purpose of applying the licensing requirement of this section to them. Non-compliance with regulations under subsection (14) will be an offence.

It may, for example, be appropriate in certain circumstances to license particular classes of domestic wastewater discharges to control the biological load arriving at the receiving wastewater treatment plant. The issue of load has been a problem in a couple of plants. The accumulation of a particularly concentrated load from a large number of premises may have adverse implications for the capacity of a wastewater treatment plant to deal with the normal wastewater inflow for which it was originally designed.

For example, should the practice of discharging domestic food waste to the sewer, for example, via under-sink food waste disposal units, rather than disposing of it or composting it with the biodegradable waste stream become widespread, it could have a significant impact on the volume and biological loading of the effluent received at wastewater treatment plants. A study on the use of food waste disposal units, carried out by RPS Consulting Engineers, which is due for publication shortly, indicates that over one third of the waste produced by households is organic. A trend towards increased disposal of this waste to the sewer to avoid paying refuse charges could have a significant negative impact. The situation is currently being monitored. The aim of the proposed amendment is to prevent what is called shock from heavy loads reaching any particular water treatment plant. It is a prudent provision.

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