Brown water discharge in Mayo river is not sewage - assures Uisce Éireann

Uisce Éireann has issued a statement to The Mayo News assuring locals that a brown discharge near a scenic picnic spot in Louisburgh is the result of the drinking water treatment process at Louisburgh Water Treatment Plant.

Concerns had been raised after a tourist had taken a video of a vigorous bubbling in the Bunowen River and what looked like raw sewage being discharged into the Bunowen river.

The water utility explains that “this discharge occurs as particles are removed from source water to produce clean drinking water for the area. This process will come to an end when the Louisburgh community is supplied by the Lough Mask Public Water Supply. Uisce Éireann is working to deliver this significant project in 2028.”

Louisburgh-based Cllr Maxwell raised the issue at Monday’s Municipal District meeting and sought a timeline for when Louisburgh will join the Lough Mask Public Water Supply. 

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“If it were farmers or rural people with septic tanks, the EPA would be down on top of them with sledgehammers,” he said.

Reacting to the 2028 timeline outlined by Uisce Éireann, Cllr Maxwell said he was very ‘disillusioned’ and ‘shocked.’

“I think it's an outright disgrace with the pipeline being brought so close now to Louisburgh that they can’t get a contractor in and finish the job out? It's insane that a town in the west of Ireland will be left without water and the pipeline within three miles of it.

“If they haven't the manpower, if they send the pipes and they send the materials back to us here in this community, we'll finish it from Kilsallagh to Louisburgh. If they are that stuck, the people of this community would come together and we’d do it ourselves.”