due to open in Carrignavar <\/a>on August 27, but the Department of Education declined three times this week to confirm that it will now open on that date.<\/p>\nConstruction work on the new school premises, a refurbished former primary school, is complete, but concerns have been voiced about possible added strain to the local wastewater system.<\/p>\n
A key planning condition for the new school states that it cannot be connected to the public wastewater network \u201cwithout prior approval from (Uisce \u00c9ireann)\u201d.<\/p>\n
The school has 25 staff and caters for 36 children, aged between four and 18, with autism and mild or moderate learning difficulties.<\/p>\n
Carrignavar is about 10 miles from Cork city and has a population of 563 people, per the 2022 census.<\/p>\n
The past decade has seen ongoing issues regarding sewerage capacity in the village. In 2017, the then Irish Water\u2019s annual environmental report said Carrignavar\u2019s wastewater system was overloaded and its final effluent non-compliant with the water utility\u2019s emission limit values.<\/p>\n
In 2019, Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) raised concerns that the public wastewater system was \u201corganically and hydraulically overloaded\u201d.<\/p>\n
In 2020, Irish Water received the benefit of the Probation Act following a prosecution by IFI for breaches of fisheries and water pollution legislation, and in April 2026, the wastewater treatment capacity register classified Carrignavar as \u2018red\u2019, meaning there was no spare capacity available.<\/p>\n
IFI this month initiated legal proceedings against Uisce \u00c9ireann for what it called \u201calleged deleterious discharges to the Cloghnagashee River\u201d at the end of July.<\/p>\n
A spawning ground for pike, eel, and perch, the Cloghnagashee is a tributary of the Glashaboy river, which feeds the Glashaboy reservoir, serving the entire Glanmire area.<\/p>\n
The EPA said it had been notified of \u201ca discoloured discharge in the River Cloghnagashee, Carrignavar\u201d on July 27 and carried out an inspection that day.<\/p>\n
During that inspection, the inspector highlighted to Uisce \u00c9ireann concerns about the quality of wastewater discharge from the treatment plant.<\/p>\n
\u201cCarrignavar wastewater treatment plant is both biologically and hydraulically overloaded,\u201d the State agency said.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe EPA requires Uisce \u00c9ireann to upgrade the treatment plant to comply with the emission limit values.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cUisce \u00c9ireann [is] responsible for the operation and maintenance of Carrignavar wastewater treatment plant and the associated sewer network and ensuring discharges meet the requirements of the wastewater discharge licence.\u201d The EPA added that it currently has \u201can open compliance investigation\u201d in relation to the required upgrade of the treatment plant and will consider any further enforcement actions following that investigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cUisce \u00c9ireann has been instructed to expedite both operational and infrastructural improvements at the site to bring the discharge into compliance with the licence and to provide timeframes for the implementation of these works,\u201d the EPA said.<\/p>\n
Colm Burke, Fine Gael TD for Cork North Central, said the EPA\u2019s findings were \u201cdamning\u201d and called on Uisce \u00c9ireann to upgrade the facility at the earliest possible date.<\/p>\n
P\u00e1draig O\u2019Sullivan, Fianna F\u00e1il TD for Cork North Central, said the EPA\u2019s findings confirmed what residents in Carrignavar had known for years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis treatment plant is overloaded and has been discharging in breach of its licence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWith an open EPA compliance investigation now underway and IFI taking court proceedings, it is clear this can no longer be treated as a routine maintenance issue.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cUisce \u00c9ireann needs to urgently expedite the upgrade works the EPA has directed.\u201d Uisce \u00c9ireann was asked for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A sewage plant key to the opening of a Co Cork special school is \u201cbiologically and hydraulically overloaded\u201d,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[79,835,246,61,60,82],"class_list":["post-597218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-cork-news","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}