Louth water disruption due to poor water quality in Dee River

Uisce Éireann (formerly Irish Water) says it is working to restore water supply for customers on the Greenmount Water Supply in County Louth, following a shutdown of the Water Treatment Plant on Thursday.

It says that poor water quality in the Dee River, with elevated levels of ammonia has meant that production at the Treatment Plant has had to be temporarily suspended. Uisce Éireann says that this will likely cause the volume of treated water storage in the network to fall below sustainable levels, and that it is working closely with Louth County Council to identify the source of contamination in the river. 

River water quality at the inlet to the treatment plant is being closely monitored by Uisce Éireann, and it says that "effort is being made to bring the plant back into production and increase reservoir storage levels". It adds that if levels remain critically low, customers in the Greenmount, Castlebellingham, Kilsaran, Anagassan and Dunleer areas are likely to experience outages. 

Speaking about the works, Stephen Burke, Uisce Éireann commented: “We are working as quickly and efficiently as possible to restore production and avoid disruption to customers. An incident team has been set up and we are in the process of mobilising water tankers. Uisce Éireann thanks customers in advance for their patience and we will issue a further update once available. It is our priority to return supply as soon as possible.”

To support impacted customers, alternative water supplies will be provided at the following locations from approximately 9:00am until 14:00pm today, Friday 5 April.

• The Church Car Park, Kilsaran
• Car Park at the Garda Station Dunleer

Customers are reminded to use their own containers when taking water from the tanker and to boil water before consumption as a precautionary measure. 

Vulnerable customers who have registered with Uisce Éireann receive direct communications for planned and unplanned outages lasting more than four hours. The Uisce Éireann customer care helpline is open 24/7 on 1800 278 278 and customers can also contact it on Twitter @IWCare with any queries. For updates please visit the Water Supply Updates section of www.water.ie.