I was recently informed of a possible issue with the current capacity of the Allenwood Waste Water Treatment Plant. Following investigation, I have now discovered that the housing developments in progress in Allenwood will overload the plant. Cllr. Mark Stafford raised the issue on my behalf with both Kildare County Council and Irish Water recently. He was told that the plant has an available capacity of 20% or 270 Population Equivalents (PE). There is no word from Irish Water on any plans to upgrade the plant yet, despite the imminent overloading.
I have attached a report below, that I wrote in relation to this. It was submitted as part of an observation on a recent planning application in the village. Whilst we are in the middle of a housing crisis, and nobody wants to slow down the rate of development, it is important that the infrastructure servicing the houses is developed at the same pace. This does not appear to be happening.
I also sent the report to Irish Water and pointed out that the plant’s available capacity will soon be taken up by the ongoing developments in Allenwood village. It would appear as if ongoing housing developments are not considered by Irish Water when determining the possibility of WWTP limits being exceeded. Indeed, if all the developments currently granted permission in Allenwood were actually built, then the plant would be over capacity at 155%.
Tankers from Boyne Waste can be seen regularly around the village emptying various tanks that are part of the system. This leads residents to believe that the system is possibly already at capacity or at the very least not functioning correctly. I eagerly await some feedback from Irish Water on the issue.
Report: Allenwood WWTP Load Projections Rev. 2
