A new water treatment plant has been causing a stink among householders and business people in a north Derry village.
Claudy residents say a gas-like odour from water treatment works, which are located just yards from a housing estate, a football pitch and a health centre, is creating problems.
Eddie McLaughlin, who lives beside the plant in the Pinewood Crescent area of the village, is one of the residents affected by the stench, which he claims has left children in the area sick.
“The smell just rises all of a sudden,” said Eddie.
“It’s just unbearable when it comes into the house, it comes up through drains and down the flue and it gets much worse when the wind is coming from the east or it’s frosty.”
Just last week an engineer from Water Service called at Mr McLaughlin’s home and left a note stating that they were unable to solve the problem because “it was on a private section of the sewer, thus it is the householder’s responsibility to action.”
“We just don’t seem to be getting anywhere,” said a disgusted Eddie. “The main sewers for all these houses run behind my house. Am I going to be responsible for every house on the estate? The smell is not coming from the sewer, you would smell a sewer, this is a gas smell. Something needs to be done now to sort this out.”
Local business man Fergal McKeever says his bar on Claudy’s lower Main Street is also affected by the smell.
“The smell comes into the bar and we have noticed customers complaining,” said Fergal.
“At the start we thought the smell was coming from our own sewers but then when we went out the front of the bar we realised it was a gassy odour. I’m sure it is set to get worse when the weather conditions become calmer.”
SDLP East Derry Westminster candidate councillor Thomas Conway says he has raised the issue with the Water Service however he wants to know why a new plant is causing such problems.
“People in Pinewood Crescent and Irwin Crescent tell me that the problem began some months back when the new treatment plant was put in,” he said.
“I have smelt it myself and I can say that it is most unpleasant, and when it is bad the odour comes back up the pipes into the homes.
“If this is what it is like through a cold spell the warm weather doesn’t bear thinking about.
“I have raised the issue with NI Water and they have promised to remedy it, but we need progress to be made soon. Otherwise it will be necessary to ask Derry City Council to bring representatives of the water service in to find out exactly what is going on that a new plant is causing such problems.”
A spokesperson for NI Water said: “NI Water carried out an investigation of the sewers in Pinewood Crescent on Tuesday 23rd February and found them to be clear and operating normally.
“NI Water also checked a Combined Sewer Overflow in the Pinewood area today, 24th February, and found it to be clear with no foul smell.
“NI Water’s field manager for the Wastewater Treatment Works in Claudy has informed both Councillor Conway and a resident of Pinewood Crescent that the odour is not linked to the Treatment Works.”