INDEPENDENT councillor Jerome Scanlan quizzed Limerick City and County Council on the action it is taking to identify and eliminate what he described as the ongoing issue of noxious odours that have permeated Newcastle West town centre over the last 10 months.
Cllr Scanlan raised the issue at the September meeting of the Newcastle West District, the first meeting back since the local authority’s summer recess.
Speaking at the monthly area meeting, senior engineer for the local authority’s Environment and Climate Action Directorate, Aidan Finn told Cllr Scanlan and the other gathered local elected representatives that staff have responded to several reports of alleged odour nuisance in the town centre since mid-June this year.
“During an inspection in mid-June, a slight odour was detected from a manhole shaft on a private sewer line serving an industrial site. This sewer line is connected into the public sewer network managed by Uisce Éireann,” Mr Finn told the elected members of the district at the meeting.
Mr Finn went on to tell councillors that while the Council has no role per se in managing private or public sewer infrastructure, in order to assist with resolving the ongoing issue, staff from the Environment Department inspected the site and requested that management implemented specified odour mitigation measures.
“The Council is satisfied that there was prompt and positive engagement in this regard. A further report of odour was received in recent weeks and this was investigated. However, no airborne odours were detected,” he said.
