If the tides aren\u2019t right, this raw sewage can easily make its way around the Famine Relief Sea Wall and on to the otherwise pristine beach.<\/p>\n
If the wind isn\u2019t right, untreated effluent from the sewage pipe is captured in the updraft before it reaches the ocean and is blown back on to unsuspecting tourists on the local cliff walk.<\/p>\n
Yet, for the past two years the Kilkee community has been fighting to prevent Uisce \u00c9ireann<\/a> from building a sewage treatment plant for the town.<\/p>\n The community has managed to raise almost \u20ac100,000 to launch a judicial review of An Coimisi\u00fan Plean\u00e1la<\/a>\u2019s decision to grant planning permission for a treatment plant, including \u20ac20,000 from the family of the late actor Richard Harris<\/a>.<\/p>\n To the outside observer, it doesn\u2019t make sense.<\/p>\n But perhaps the best place to view this situation is from the trail head of Kilkee\u2019s famed cliff walk.<\/p>\n As Intrinsic Bay opens before you, the view to your right is dominated by Duggerna Reef with its famous Pollock Holes.<\/p>\n To your left is the townland of Fooagh, where a decades-old pipe releases raw sewage over the cliff and into the ocean.<\/p>\n Directly behind you, just a few hundred metres south of the trail head, is the proposed site for the new waste water treatment plant.<\/p>\n The people of Kilkee want a treatment plant, they just don\u2019t want this treatment plant in this location.<\/p>\n \u201cKilkee doesn\u2019t have an industry, tourism is our industry. The cliff walk and the Pollock Holes, which are a special area of conservation, they are the jewels in the crown. Both of them are going to be damaged irreparably by this [treatment plant]. This looped walk is the lifeblood of the town,\u201d says local resident Ellie Byrne.<\/p>\n \u201cNobody in Kilkee is suggesting that we don\u2019t need a wastewater treatment plant, we have been calling for one for decades. But the one that Uisce \u00c9ireann have had approved is in the wrong place.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are going to be looking at these huge, 40ft high, unsightly tanks of raw sewage, open to the elements, being agitated [stirred] constantly with all the associated smells.<\/p>\n \u201cIt beggars belief that anyone could stand on this cliff walk and decide this is the right location for it.\u201d<\/p>\n The campaign for a sewage plant for Kilkee has been active since the 1980s, so locals were overjoyed in 2017 when the government approved funding for Uisce \u00c9ireann to develop sewage treatment plants in Kilkee and neighbouring Kilrush.<\/p>\n That joy quickly began to subside, however, once details of the proposed facility became known.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we heard that the sewage treatment plant was coming, we all assumed this would be an ultimate, long-term solution. That it would be the end to beach closures, the end to the loss of the blue flag,\u201d says local man Joseph McCloskey.<\/p>\n \u201cThe beach is routinely closed each summer. Notices go up and barricades are put up in the sea wall to prevent you entering the beach.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the details of the proposal came to light, people were horrified at what was being suggested.<\/p>\n \u201cThe more we have become aware of what is being proposed, the more we are worried about it. We are going to be as exposed to contaminants from sewage going into the bathing water as ever we were.\u201d<\/p>\n The key issue for many local people is the type of treatment plant being developed. The existing proposal is for a primary treatment plant, which will pump both sewage and rain water into two large storage tanks located in a field, close to the start of the cliff walk.<\/p>\n These open-air tanks will be agitated before the solid materials are captured and transported by trucks to be dealt with at another Uisce \u00c9ireann facility.<\/p>\n The remaining liquid will then be pumped into the ocean using the same pipe as has been used for generations.<\/p>\n \u201cPrimary treatment isn\u2019t treatment at all. It\u2019s two big slurry tanks. There is no treatment. They take the solids off the top. A 20-tonne truck will come up here, take the solids, and the rest of the effluent will go out in the same place that it always goes out,\u201d says Tom Byrne, a former member of Kilkee town council.<\/p>\n Locals have also raised concerns that the nearby Victoria stream, which flows into the ocean at Kilkee beach, will be used as an emergency overflow under the Uisce \u00c9ireann plan.<\/p>\n When the current pumping system malfunctions, raw sewage is directed into this stream, and locals are concerned the new facility will make this practice official.<\/p>\n \u201cThe overflow into the Victoria stream was illegal, but it was also unofficial. But now Uisce \u00c9ireann have put it into their proposal that this practice would become official. So if there is heavy rainfall or a power outage, that\u2019s what will happen,\u201d says Byrne.<\/p>\n![\"Ellie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/X3HR2VTLTBDDRLRJZGIQBD4PIM.jpg\")
Ellie Byrne at the Kilkee cliff walk on a misty day this week. Photograph: Eamon Ward <\/p>\n![\"Tom](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/MLDFAITOKVCLBLDRWTUQATCGHA.jpg\")
Tom Byrne: ‘Primary treatment isn\u2019t treatment at all.’ Photograph: Eamon Ward <\/p>\n