Ringsend EIS & Planning Consultancy, Dublin

We were appointed by Irish Water to take the Ringsend WWTP and Regional Bio-Solids facility (RBSF) through the planning process.  Ringsend WWTP is for Dublin city and environs.  It has a nominal design capacity of 1.64 million population equivalents (PE) and the proposed upgrades will increase the capacity to 2.4 million PE and achieve the standards of the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive.

The Regional Biosolids Storage Facility is a facility for the storage of treated biosolids produced from wastewater treatment plants in greater Dublin. The facility was granted planning permission by An Bord Pleanala in April 2019 as part of Ringsend Wastewater Treatment Plant grant of permission. The new biosolids storage facility will form a key part of the upgraded wastewater treatment network for greater Dublin and will facilitate its continued social and economic growth while protecting the environment. The Environmental Impact Assessment process comprised the following stages:

• Initial consideration of the Impact Assessment Requirements resulting in a Scoping Report.
• Scoping consultation with key stakeholders and the general public.
• Coordination with multiple Local Authorities.
• Procurement and coordination of all environmental subconsultants including ecology, archaeology, water quality, traffic, landscape and visual, human health, odour, air quality, noise etc.
• Coordination with the Design Teams, obtaining layouts/drawings, data, design assumptions, constructability assessments etc
• Data gathering and field surveys.
• Client consultation and agreement on scoping exercise for the purposes of the environmental impact assessment.
• Final report detailing the Environmental Impact Assessment of the proposed changes to the Ringsend Wastewater Treatment Plant and RBSF.

Through pre-planning consultation with An Bord Pleanála it was determined that the application would be a Strategic Infrastructure Development and should be submitted under section 37E of the Planning and Development Act. During the contract, two amendments were made to the existing 2012 approval for the WwTP through applications to ABP under section 146B of the Planning and Development Act.

An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was carried out by a team of in-house and subconsultant specialists and the resulting EIA Report accompanied the 37E Planning Application.

An Appropriate Assessment Screening report and Natura Impact Statement were prepared in conjunction with Natura Consultants. The purpose of the report was to provide the information required to enable the Competent Authority (ABP) to undertake an Appropriate Assessment of the project in accordance Article 6(3) of the Habitats Directive (92/42/EEC). It provided a focused assessment of the likely effects of the development on the Natura 2000 sites in Dublin Bay and neighbouring coasts.  The EIAR and Planning application was submitted in June 2018 and following clarifications the decision to Grant Planning was provided in April 2019 without the need for an oral hearing.