Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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339. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the EPA guidelines on set-back distances of buffer zones from urban wastewater treatment plants serving a population equivalent of 1,000 or more and 2,000 or more that are in place and which take highly sensitive receptors such as school and pre-school children into account (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42777/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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There are no statutory minimum buffer zones set for wastewater treatment plants.

The Environmental Protection Agency was established in 1993 to license, regulate and control activities for the purposes of environmental protection. In Section 60 of the Environmental Protection Agency Act, 1992, it is stated that:

"the Agency may, and shall if so directed by the Minister, specify and publish criteria and procedures, which in the opinion of the Agency are reasonable and desirable for the purposes of environmental protection, in relation to the management, maintenance, supervision, operation or use of all or specified classes of plant, sewers or drainage pipes vested in or controlled or used by a sanitary authority for the treatment or disposal of any sewage or other effluent to any waters”.

Irish Water’s site selection process for wastewater treatment plants is informed by EPA guidelines. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Guidance document, ‘Wastewater Treatment Manuals – Treatment Systems for Small Communities, Business, Leisure Centres and Hotels’, sets out that 50m is the minimum recommended distance that a wastewater treatment plant, with a treatment capacity of 161 population equivalent or more, should be located from sensitive receptors. The EPA guidance states that this distance is required to avoid odour and noise nuisance that may be generated from a wastewater treatment plant.

There are different scenarios which impact a site selection process for the provision of a wastewater treatment plant. The first step in such a process is to identify and define the project need and scope. There are varying complexities in site selection depending on whether a wastewater treatment plant is required to be backfilled into an existing town / village or if it is greenfield development.

The impacts of a proposed development, such as a wastewater treatment plant, on the general amenity of a community is assessed against general planning policies (including, but not limited to, land use, amenity and social sustainability (economic and population growth)). Potential impacts on environmental quality are measured against established standards, which Irish Water must comply with.

Wastewater treatment plants serving a population of more than 10,000 must undergo an Environmental Impact Assessment which examines among other things the effect of the proposed development on human health.

Furthermore, proposed Irish Water wastewater treatment plants are subject to planning permission and Irish Water must comply with any planning conditions attached to a grant of permission.

There are human health concerns in the absence of an efficient and modern drainage and sewage system capable of dealing with the demands put upon it. The provision of a wastewater treatment plant can contribute to environmental benefits and protection of the population from public health dangers. It can also contribute to socio-economic growth.