Political allies split and the European Commission was set against the Government on the issue, writes Lorna Siggins
When it was first proposed to put a sewage treatment plant in Mutton Island in the middle of Galway Bay there was a bitter and divisive row. Political allies split and the European Commission was set against the Government.
A prominent member of Galway's artistic community, actor Ray McBride, became the public face of opposition to the Mutton Island plant and he went to court over the issue. Members of his Save Galway Bay group said the issue was not the need for a sewage treatment for Europe's fastest-growing city of its size, it was the location chosen by Galway City Council.
Lying about a kilometre off the city's shore, Mutton Island marks the entrance to Galway docks and its lighthouse dates back several centuries.
The uninhabited island has been an important roosting area for over 1,000 birds at any one time, including oystercatcher, bar-tailed godwit, curlew, dunlin, turnstone, snipe, brent geese, swans, herons, cormorants, great-crested grebe and red-breasted merganser.
For this reason, the island was designated as a candidate Special Area of Conservation under the EU Habitats Directive.
However, Galway City Council had selected it as site for its proposed sewage treatment plant for the city, and ignored pleas in favour of a more discreet location at the former isolation hospital on the edge of Lough Atalia in the city's docks area.
In October, 1995, the European Commissioner for Regional Policy, Ms Monika Wulf-Mathies, accepted the view that it would have a major negative environmental impact and withdrew approval for EU funding for the project - which would have covered 85 per cent of the cost.
The then minister for the environment, Mr Brendan Howlin, decided to proceed with the Mutton Island site regardless, at an estimated cost to the State back then of £23 million.
In February, 1996, Galway City Council sought tenders to construct the waste disposal plant and causeway to the island, and Mr McBride went to court seeking an order to quash this. However, the order was refused by the High Court, and Mr McBride then appealed to the Supreme Court.
On March 24th, 1998, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal and awarded costs to the city council.
Construction costs of the project have since escalated to €70 million, but the city council says that there has been a marked improvement in Galway Bay's water quality since September 15th last when the first sewage was diverted to the island for treatment.
Mr Matt Cremin, project resident engineer, says that some 99 per cent of the city's sewage is now being treated there, and water quality in the bay is now significantly above the minimum EU standards under its waste water directive. This has been verified for the city council by Aquafact Consultants, who began testing the water several years ago to establish a baseline, he says.
Some 18 to 20 tonnes of sludge taken from the secondary treatment plant is transported to Kildare daily, and treated with lime for eventual use in agriculture, he says.
However, An Taisce's Galway branch chairman, Mr Derrick Hambleton, is still resolutely opposed to the location.
He says that it is two and a half years since a proposed sludge management plan for the city and county was published without any action. This plan had recommended Tuam as a final hub for the sludge.