Thomas Farren CFCE, Laurence Arbuckle Board member, Clr Jack Murray, John mc Cartney Director Loughs Agency, Dr Don mc Ginley CFCE, Enda Craig CFCE
POLITICIANS may be about to pull the plug on a costly legal battle which has cost Donegal County Council an estimated €6M and a quarter of a century of angst.
In 1990 county councillors were praised when they finally agreed to a solution to the sewage treatment problems affecting Moville and Greencastle.
A new waste water treatment plant was given the go-ahead; with an outflow pipe into the Atlantic ocean, north of Foyle estuary.
But somehow – and no-one has ever explained it – the democratic decision of councillors was set aside and a new plan hatched for the outflow pipe to go into the Foyle, close to some of the area’s most beautiful beaches and coastal walkways.
The Campaign For a Clean Estuary, the CFCE, has fought a battle since to get the original plan reinstated.
And now every local politician has agreed that’s what should be done.
If the council – and now Irish Water – do not agree, CFCE has already made a submission to Europe saying they are being denied natural justice set out in the Aarhus Convention which signed by Ireland last year. The convention compels states to allow citizens access to justice on environmental issues, regardless of cost.
On Friday afternoon last, members of the CFCE, accompanied by local Sinn Fein Clr. Jack Murray, met with the Lough’s Agency Director of Conservation and Protection John McCartney and board member Mr Laurence Arbuckle to discuss the fears and concerns of the local community of Moville and Greencastle in relation to the proposed sewage discharge by Donegal Co Conncil into the waters of the Foyle estuary at Carnagarve.
Spokesman Enda Craig told Donegal Daily: “The CFCE members gave a detailed history of the campaign to date and impressed upon the director and board member the importance of moving the discharge north of Greencastle in line with the ‘ precautionary principle’ which was the basis of the unanimous decision of the elected members of Donegal Co Co taken all those years ago in 1990.
“The still unexplained decision by the Council executive to abandon this democratic decision has been the main overriding factor for the delay in delivering this overdue and badly needed Waste Water Treatment Plant for the Moville and Greencastle communities.”
Cllr Murray said: “All political parties in the Inishowen Peninsula are once again in total agreement with the 1990 decision in relation to the location outside the estuary, thus protecting the highly regarded bathing waters, pocket beaches and shore walk between Moville and Greencastle.”
When the new council is elected a motion before the council may finally end the dispute – and the original plan given the go-ahead.
The council wanted to pump sewage here
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