REPORT TO AN BORD PLEANALA Re: APPLICATION FOR APPROVAL, UNDER SECTION 175 OF THE PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT ACT 2000, OF THE PROPOSAL BY KILDARE COUNTY COUNCIL TO EXTEND THE WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT AT KILDARE TOWN, CO KILDARE Board Ref: 09.EL2048 REPORT OF DOM HEGARTY BE Dip T & CP Chartered Town Planner and Civil Engineer 1st March 06 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 2 Description of Proposal 3 Written Submissions 4 General Assessment 5 Inspector’s Conclusion 16 Recommendation 17 Appendix: 1 Kildare Town Local Area Plan 2002 2 Photographs of site and Barrow outfall point 1 Introduction Kildare County Council proposes to extend the wastewater treatment works (hereinafter referred to as WWTW or works) for Kildare town. The project falls within the threshold criteria above which provision of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is required – population equivalent (p.e.) of 42,000 against an indicative threshold in excess of 10,000. The process of Approval of the project is as follows: • The required EIS is prepared by the Council • The Council, under section 175 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, applies to the Board for Approval of the development and attaches therewith the EIS • At the same time as it is applying for Approval, the Council gives public notice of the intention to seek approval and points out that an EIS has been prepared and may be inspected. • The Council also points out that submission and observations in relation to the implications of the proposed development for proper planning and sustainable development of the area, may be made in writing to the Board within a specified period. The Council applied to the Board for the necessary Approval on 25th October 2005. I inspected the site on 9th February 06. This report is in accordance with the warrant appointing me and contains my conclusions and recommendations in relation to the application. 2 Description of Proposal The existing WWTW is located to the south of Kildare town with the main treatment site to the south of and adjacent to the M7 near the National Stud. Some storm tanks are located to the north of and adjoining the M7, immediately opposite the main site. The upgrade will be contained entirely with the existing WWTW sites (new inlet works only on the northern site) but a new pipeline to the River Barrow, 15 km long, where treated effluent will be discharged, will also be constructed. (The existing outfall to the Tully stream, 1 km to the south, will be retained as an emergency discharge facility). The existing works, which is close to capacity, has a treatment capacity for a population equivalent (p.e.) of 9,700. The new WWTW, when both stages are complete, will be able to accommodate flows for a p.e. up to 42,000. It is intended that the proposed development shall be a Design and Build (DB) scheme. 3 Written Submissions Submissions were received by the Board from three public bodies viz: • Southern Regional Fisheries Board • Health Service Executive (HSE) and • Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government (DoEHLG) – Development Applications Unit The Southern Regional Fisheries Board welcomed the proposed development. They asked that best available technology (BAT) be used and that the WWTW be designed to cater for all existing and projected loadings. They expressed themselves unclear about the capability of the existing storm water facilities to deal with future flows. The Health Service Executive also welcomed the proposed development. They pointed out, however, that the Kildare county had obtained an Abstraction Order to extract 20 mega litres of water per day (for public water supply) from the River Barrow downstream of the WWTW (near Athy). It was anticipated that this 20 mega litres would be increased in time to 40 mega litres per day. They were concerned that “the projected increase in population and increases in other development and resultant need for wastewater discharge have not been adequately addressed in calculating the waste assimilative capacity of the River Barrow”. DoEHLG pointed to the existence of a number of (named) archaeological monuments in the vicinity of the WWTW and considered that the potential and impact of the development on archaeological remains had not been adequately assessed in the EIS. They recommended that the developer be required to engage the services of a suitably qualified archaeologist to carry out an assessment. Such an assessment should include all relevant documentary research and, furthermore, the archaeologist should be required to submit a written report to DoEHLG., all in the interests of ensuring the continued ‘preservation’ of places etc. of archaeological interest. 4 General Assessment The format of the EIS is a reasonable one to use for assessing the acceptability overall of the development. I intend to generally follow that format. It has the added advantage that I can cross reference to dealing as well with the adequacy of the EIS. The structure of the EIS is set out in Table 1.1 of the EIS which is reproduced here. Table 1.1 Structure of this EIS Section Contents A non-technical summary of the EIS (as a separate leaflet) 1 Background to the project. 2 Project context (including the regulatory and national and local planning policy context). 3 Description of the proposed development (including infrastructure, processes, and a discussion of the alternatives considered). 4 The results of the scoping exercise 5 A description of the existing environmental conditions in relation to: a) Effects principally affecting the human population: • Air quality and odour; • landscape and visual; • socio-economic effects; • traffic; and • noise and vibration. b) Effects on the natural and built environment: • flora and fauna; • the aquatic environment; • land contamination; and • cultural heritage. 6 A description of the effects of the scheme (broken down as per Section 5) 7 Methods for mitigation or avoidance of adverse effects and residual effects (broken down as per Section 5) 8 A summary of the predicted residual effects. 1 Background to the Project The town of Kildare is expected to develop and expand over the coming years. The existing WWTW site, owned by the Council, which currently has treatment capacity for a population equivalent (p.e.) of 9,700, will be used to accommodate the new WWTW. The bulk of the existing works will be demolished and a new WWTW constructed on the site. The discharge location of the effluent – the River Barrow 15 km away - has been selected because local watercourses were deemed unsuitable due to their small size and restrictive “Waste Assimilative Capacity (WAC). 5 (Note - Waste Assimilative Capacity (WAC) defines the maximum amount of waste that may be discharged to a river at a particular point without leading to unacceptable deviations of the quality of the receiving water from the designated standards. I shall frequently be referring to WAC). The EIS, reflecting the fact that this is a Design and Build (DB) scheme, states that the detailed specifications of the WWTW are not fully known at this stage. Where assumptions have to be made, the EIS considered ‘worst case scenario’ and specified design limits on emissions. These limits will be incorporated into the Contract Documents. 2 Project context (including policy context) The existing zoned lands in the Kildare County Development Plan when developed will, it is stated, have the potential to increase the overall p.e. of 28,000. The long term projection to the year 2025, is for a p.e. of 42,000 for the town. The works will be constructed in two stages. The first stage will itself have two phases, an initial phase to provide for 14,000 p.e., which will use the available land within the site following which the existing tanks and structures, not being re-used, will be demolished and the second phase will then be developed on the newly cleared land and will provide for a total capacity of 28,000 p.e. The second stage will provide for a total capacity of 42,000 p.e. (The Council also refer in the EIS to a couple of facilities for which permission has already been granted and construction of which is already underway. Those facilities do not affect the calculations for the works under consideration here). The EIS refers to a number of planning policy documents in support of the development including: • National and European waste management policy • Regional planning guidelines • County Development Plan provisions and • Kildare Town Local Area Plan 2001 Of particular relevance is Policy P2.4.2 of the latter which states that it is the Policy of the Council to ensure that the necessary drainage facilities, to serve the needs of all development within the town and to prevent pollution, are provided. The existing works has (otherwise) the ‘Green Belt’ zoning objective 03.2.11 which primarily seeks to protect agricultural uses and prevent urban sprawl and ribbon development. 6 3 Description of the proposed development (including discussion of alternatives considered) Section 3 of the EIS describes in detail the proposed development including the construction details and likely phasing of the various stages. The existing works is also detailed. The proposed infrastructure, which will be accommodated within the existing site, is stated as likely to comprise one of five (alternative) processes. The likely layout of each is shown in Figs 3.2 to 3.6 of the EIS. While the various options have some similar processes, the layouts are by and large quite different. The alternatives are: • three membrane bioreactor process (MBR) tanks • conventional activated sludge process comprising three aeration basins and three MBR tanks • conventional activated sludge process (excluding MBR), comprising three aeration basins • three sequencing batch reactors (SBR) with MBR tanks or • three sequencing batch reactors (SBR) without MBR tanks.