Fingal County Council has rejected plans for a €140 million regional sewage plant at Portrane in north Dublin, putting the sewerage strategy for the entire Dublin region at risk of collapse.
The proposed plant would have had the capacity to process the waste of 850,000 people and would have been second in size in the region only to the waste water treatment works in Ringsend in Dublin.
It was intended that the plant would serve not just the Fingal council area, but would also process sewage from the other Dublin local authority areas of Dublin city, Dún Laoghaire- Rathdown and south Dublin along with parts of the surrounding counties of Meath, Kildare and Wicklow.
The proposal was included in Fingal's Water Services Assessment of Needs 2005-2012, which came before the council last night, but is also an integral part of the the Greater Dublin Strategic Drainage Study (GDSDS), which directs the sewage treatment needs of the region up to 2031.
The assessment of needs document went on public display last September.
The council received more than 2,500 submission on the document, which consisted almost entirely of objections to the Portrane plant, officials said,.
A motion rejecting the plans for the plant, signed by 12 councillors from all parties, was passed by the council last night.
The motion stated that the council was rejecting the recommendations on the "optimum drainage solution" set out in the GDSDS and that it intended to reject any proposals for a "single super waste water treatment plant" in Fingal.
Councillors also voted that a strategic environmental assessment (SEA) be carried out on the GDSDS. This would mean that the entire drainage and sewerage needs of Dublin and the surrounding counties would again be subject to review.
Labour councillor Gerry McGuire said it was essential that alternatives to the Portrane plant were explored.
"The fact that there were almost 2,700 objections to this plant shows that the people have great and genuine concerns about the location of this plant."
Anne Devitt of Fine Gael said she fully recognised that the council must make provision for long-term infrastructure, but she said the proposal to site it on the picturesque Portrane peninsula was not well thought out.
"Perhaps economic feasibility was driving this decision, rather than the sustainability of the project."
Green Party councillor Joe Corr said the proposed plant was earmarked for the site of an existing sewage works serving a local community of little more than 10,000.
The council had already agreed that this plant should be redeveloped to cater for 65,000 people, but an extension to 850,000 people could not be considered, he added.
"A clear message has come from the community that this is a bridge too far," he said.
County manager John Tierney said he would contact the Department of the Environment to request that an SEA be conducted. More than 200 local residents, including actor Stephen Rea, staged a protest against the proposed plant outside last night's council meeting.
The siting of the plant was part of the "gradual downgrading of north Dublin", Mr Rea said.
Dr Stephen O'Sullivan of the Fairshare campaign said the community had already accepted that the plant be increased to 65,000 and could not be accused of so-called "nimby-ism".
"We are just sick and tired of Fingal being used as a dumping ground for undesirable infrastructure."
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