Project marks completion of one of the most strategically significant projects in public water supply in Ireland

Irish Water, working in partnership with Dublin City Council, is delighted to announce that works to provide a new sludge treatment process at Ballymore Eustace Water Treatment Plant (WTP), which supplies drinking water to over 1,000,000 people across Dublin City, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, South Dublin County and Kildare has been completed. This project completes the expansion of the largest water treatment plant in the country to a treatment capacity of up to 318,000 cubic metres of drinking water per day. The project represents a €15.3 million investment in Ballymore Eustace WTP.

Ballymore Eustace WTP is located on the shore of Blessington Reservoir on the Wicklow/ Kildare border. The construction of the 166 million cubic meter impounding reservoir on the River Liffey commenced in 1937 and was completed in 1947 which created a catchment of 312 sq. kms, with the dual purposes of water supply and hydro-electric power generation for a rapidly growing Dublin City & County population.

To date there have been a number of developments at the plant, bringing its capacity from an initial 50,000 cubic metres in the 1940s, through to 136,000 cubic metres in the mid-seventies and on to 250,000 cubic metres in 1986. The recent expansion has seen the plant reach its ultimate capacity of 318,000 cubic metres per day.

This project involved the construction of a new sludge treatment process to meet the WTP’s ultimate capacity. The project employed a combination of centrifuge and thermal drying of the WTP’s sludge which has been successful in achieving a 87% reduction in the volume of sludge that required disposal to landfill. This also equates to a 169,000 km reduction in truck movements per year between the WTP and disposal route. Veolia Water Ireland Ltd. and Clonmel Enterprises Ltd. completed the Works on IW behalf, under the supervision of RPS Group.

Commenting on the investment, William McKnight, Irish Water, said: “This substantial investment has enabled Irish Water complete the most recent expansion of the WTP whilst meeting the main priorities of National Waste Management Policy to minimise waste quantities destined for disposal.”