'Awful sight' raw sewage flowing into Laois town's houses

Mature houses in a Laois town faced "raw sewage coming up and flowing into houses" recently.

It is not the first time that the homes have endured the problem.

Cllr Willie Aird has described the "awful sight" when he attended the scene on the Ridge Road in Portlaoise recently.

The road leads to Portlaoise's sewage treatment works.

"It's the second or third time it's happened. I hope that something will be put in place. 

"The housing that is getting affected are ones that are there the longest, 35 maybe 40 years.

"It was even powerful enough to lift up the manhole cover, and raw sewage coming all around.

"Next time it rains it could happen again. I don't want this to be put on the long finger," Cllr Aird said.

He thanked staff of Laois County Council who had to come urgently and pump the waste away.

He tabled a motion to the December meeting of Portlaoise Municipal District.

He requests Laois County Council to ask Irish Water to undertake work to solve the problem of raw sewage on the Ridge Road entering houses when there is a flood.

"This seems to be backing up with the overload from the sewerage system at Esker Hills," Cllr Aird suggests.

In reply, Laois County Council senior engineer Trevor Hennessy said that 'non-retun valves' may offer a short term solution.

"There are a number of houses on the Ridge Roads which are low relative to the trunk sewer in the public road. When this trunk sewer surcharges during times of heavy rainfall it may cause issues for these connections in the lowest part of the sewer network.

"Laois County Council have made a request to Irish Water that a level survey is conducted in this area and have also requested to have this area included in the current Drainage Area Plan work being undertaken for Portlaoise.

"In the short term the council will be recommending to irish Water that non-return valves are installed on these connections. This may require the co-operation of the property owners and in some cases the valves may have to be installed on private property," Mr Hennessy said.

Cllr Caroline Dwane Stanley had seconded the motion but she has a related issue, with the area being labelled a flood risk.

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"This is going on years, five or six years ago it was the same. The whole area needs to be looked at. It is labelled as flood risk on the maps so on top of houses being destroyed, they can't get house insurance. It is an awful situation to be living in," she said.

Cllr Catherine Fitzgerald agreed.

"It is very urgent. These people see heavy rain and wonder if its going to block their sewerage," she said.