Longford family highlight 'unhealthy' and 'dangerous' pollution of stream running behind their house

The release of biological waste into a Ballinalee stream that feeds the Camlin has been described as “unhealthy, smelly, dangerous” by one local resident.

John Gregory lives in the Shantober Estate in Ballinalee: “At present we have an open sewer full of human excrement to the rear of our house, it’s a stream that sits directly behind our back garden fence, it’s been like this now for nearly a month,” he told the Leader.
John first raised the issue at the end of December: “You can see it from the back of my house, but it's the smell that is the worst part of it.”

He contacted his elected representative about the problem.
“I brought this to the attention of our local TD and someone from the council came out last Thursday. He had a good look, but he couldn't work out where it was coming from.”
The local authority representative gave an undertaking to get Uisce Éireann to examine the issue.
John says the problem is having a significant impact.

“I can't go out into my back garden. My partner has leukaemia and a fractured vertebrae, she’s confined to bed, we cannot open the windows in our house, front or back because of the smell.”
John hopes the problem will be dealt with as soon as possible.

“It's unhealthy, smelly, dangerous and the water is feeding into the Camlin River, so this is a significant environmental issue for everyone.”