Hospital sewage `polluting field'

Raw sewage from Peamount Hospital is pouring out of a burst sewer on to a neighbouring farm at Newcastle, Co Dublin, the Circuit…

Raw sewage from Peamount Hospital is pouring out of a burst sewer on to a neighbouring farm at Newcastle, Co Dublin, the Circuit Civil Court heard yesterday. Judge Yvonne Murphy was told that the untreated sewage included incontinence nappies and was spreading over a field belonging to Mr Henry and Mr Ted Crowley.

Under a 50-year-old agreement the sewer ran under the Crowley lands but it had burst and never been repaired. In court proceedings a settlement had been reached but the hospital had not implemented it.

Judge Murphy heard the hospital had agreed to install a sewage "muncher" to treat its effluent before it entered the sewer, which the hospital had agreed to replace.

She adjourned the case for a fortnight.