Three Cork water supplies removed from ‘risk list’
Three public water schemes in Cork have been removed from a list of potentially dangerous supplies by the environment watchdog. This follows upgrade works by Irish Water.
However, another three drinking water systems in Cork remain on the Environmental Protection Agency’s remedial action list, which identifies supplies with the most serious deficiencies and which pose a risk to public health.
Updated figures from the EPA show that three schemes — at Adrigole, Crookhaven and Mogeely — which, combined, provide drinking water to 3,000 people, have been removed from the warning list.
Other EPA audits show problems with drinking water supplied by schemes in Drimoleague, Glengarriff, and Kealkill, which, collectively, supply a population of 1,700.
The EPA said Irish Water had not complied with a direction, issued in June 2015, to ensure that drinking water in Drimoleague did not have excessive levels of trihalomethanes (THMs) by the end of 2018.
THMs are compounds, including chloroform, which occur in drinking water as a result of a reaction between organic materials, such as soil, and chlorine, which has been added as a disinfectant.
Some medical studies suggest a link between long-term exposure to THMs and cancer and reproductive effects, but the evidence is not conclusive. There is some evidence to suggest THMs cause cancer in animals. However, both the HSE and Irish Water emphasise that any possible risks from THMs are much lower than the risk of serious illness from drinking water that has not been disinfected.
The recent EPA audit found that THM levels in Drimoleague continue to exceed recommended levels. A similar failure to carry out improvements by the end of last year was recorded during a recent audit of the public water supply in Kealkill.
A subsequent completion deadline of last March, set by Irish Water for upgrade works, was also not met. They are now due to be finished by September.
An audit of the Glengarriff scheme, following the detection of cryptosporidium and giardia — microscopic parasites — in supplies at the start of the year, found the cause of the problem had still not been identified.
The Glengarriff scheme is on the EPA’s remedial action list because of persistent elevated levels of THMs, but upgrade works are not due to be completed until the end of 2020.
Sixty water schemes on the EPA’s list of supplies fail to consistently provide safe drinking water. Collectively, they supply 551,000 customers. Cork accounts for 10 of these (and includes the scheme in the city, which supplies drinking water to over 87,000 customers), followed by nine in Wicklow. Cavan, Donegal, Kerry, and Kilkenny each have five schemes on the list.
The other Cork schemes on the EPA list are Ballyhooly, Durrus, Leap, Schull and Whiddy Island.All the supplies with the exception of Cork city and Ballyhooly have elevated levels of THMs while the supplies in Ballyhooly and Glengarriff provide inadequate treatment for cryptosporidium.
Irish Water said water treatment plants in Adrigole and Mogeely, where cryptosporidum had been detected in the past, were upgraded with the installation of pressure filtration units and UV disinfection systems.The company said new filters were installed in the Crookhaven scheme to stop THMs.
“Whilst improvements have been made in many areas, the scale of the challenge faced by Irish Water in ensuring the delivery of clean and safe water in Cork and throughout the country remains,” said an Irish Water spokesperson.
A total of eight water schemes in Cork, serving a population of more than 20,000, have now been removed from the EPA’s remedial action list since 2015.
