Around 60 per cent of septic tank owners are unlikely to meet tonight’s deadline to register their sewage treatment systems for a €5 fee.
According to last year’s Census, there are 497,281 septic tanks and other on-site waste-water treatment systems in the State.
By this morning more than 186,000 largely rural dwellers had registered their tanks, online, by post, or at their local authority offices. The Local Authority Management Agency said it expected to have reached 200,000 registrations by the end of the day.
Households registering their tank from tomorrow must pay €50. Registration needs to be made before February 1st next year, after which inspections will begin. The inspections are intended to establish whether the individual sewage systems are working properly or if they pose a pollution threat to water sources.
The registration fees will be used to off-set the cost of inspections and there will be no charge for having an inspection carried out. The Environmental Protection Agency is currently developing an inspection plan, but not all tank owners will be inspected.
The inspections will take a “risk-based” approach with proximity to rivers, lakes and streams – particularly drinking water sources – taken into consideration.
People will be formally notified by their local authority if their domestic waste water treatment system is to be inspected. Inspectors will be required to carry identification and householders are advised to ask to seek identification before allowing anyone onto their property.
There was a surge in registrations over the last week. By last Monday just over 100,000 people had registered their tanks, and by today that figure had almost doubled. However the majority of tank owners, around 300,000, have still not registered.
The registration of septic tanks has been criticised by some rural households who claim they would be forced to spend thousands of euro upgrading their tanks while city dwellers did not face such charges.
The United Left Alliance’s Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes has urged people not to register their tanks.
Owen Curran, a spokesman for the campaign in Donegal said households could not afford the potential upgrading costs.
“It is unsustainable to attempt to remedy any problems on an individual basis. It is also unfair that septic tank owners should be responsible for the cost, when you consider that septic tanks are only responsible for 7 per cent of ground water pollution throughout the State.”
The Government originally planned a flat €50 fee, but following an outcry it announced in February that the fee would be reduced to €5 for the first three months of the scheme.
