Looking back... Concerns over Belfast sewage at Drains Bay site

The Deputy Mayor of Larne expressed a number of concerns about sewage from Belfast being dumped at Drains Bay in March 1983.

Cllr Tom Robinson claimed that sewage from the Northern Irish capital was being pumped out to sea continually, not just when there was an out-going tide at the location in Larne.

He said: “I don’t think sewage should be dumped here anyway, but I can’t see why we should have to accept tank loads from other areas.”

The council’s chief public health inspector was enlisted to sort the matter out.

A spokesman from the Department of the Environment confirmed that the Department had hired a ship from the Irish Waste Company and that they had been carrying out this same process “for a long time”.

It had been confirmed that the sewage was treated before it was being pumped, not raw as Cllr Robinson had claimed.

When this information was put to Cllr Robinson, the UUP representative said: “It all depends on your definition of raw sewage. Usually sewage is pumped on an out-going tide, but on one particular day I know it was sent out continuously and not going through the retention tank.”