What is polluting Limerick waters? It 'doesn't come from outer space' - Green Limerick
AS 7,000 people in west Limerick deal with an ongoing boil water notice over pollution concerns, the question that remains on the tips of tongues is “What exactly is polluting our waters and where is it coming from?”.
A boil water notice has been affecting the Foynes/Shannon Estuary Public Water Supply since May of this year and last week saw a special meeting of Limerick City and County Council (LCCC) over the ongoing boil water notices in county Limerick.
The motion for the meeting was submitted by Adare-Rathkeale councillors John O’Donoghue, Adam Teskey, Bridie Collins, Stephen Keary, Emmett O’Brien and Kevin Sheahan “due to the number of boil water notices in Limerick City and County” and they asked for a full update including a schedule of works and timeline to alleviate the problem with a view to ending boil water notices.
Over 9,000 customers of Uisce Éireann are currently affected by a boil water notice in Limerick - approximately 7,000 customers as part of the Foynes/Shannon Estuary Public Water Supply and 2,300 as part of the Cappamore Foileen Public Water Supply.
Both of these boil water notices have been issued due to a large amount of cryptosporidium being detected in the water.
Cryptosporidium is a parasite, and, more specifically, it is a parasite that spreads due to human or animal faeces.
Cryptosporidium or crypto for short can cause the diarrheal disease cryptosporidiosis if ingested.
The parasite is protected by an outer shell that allows it to survive outside the body for long periods and makes it very tolerant to chlorine disinfection, a reason why the parasite, once detected, is difficult to render inactive.
During a special meeting of the municipal district of Adare-Rathkeale back in May of this year, Uisce Éireann (formerly Irish Water) made clear that they intended to remove an ultraviolet (UV) reactor from a water treatment plant in Cork and transport it to the Foynes plant where it would be installed. This UV reactor renders the crypto inactive and therefore will allow for the lifting of the boil water notice affecting the 7,000 people who receive their water supply from the Foynes plant.
During last week’s special meeting, Cllr Seán Hartigan of the Green Party felt the installation of the UV reactor would be like placing a bucket in your house to catch water droplets while ignoring the leak in the roof. The cause, according to Mr Hartigan, needs to be found and dealt with as crypto doesn't just come from outer space.
“This crypto has to come from some place. The real shame is that the water supply that we are taking in for drinking is polluted in the first place,” Mr Hartigan said.
The cause of the problem needs to be sourced and, according to Mr Hartigan, the problem can only be coming from either wastewater treatment plants or from the agriculture industry as both deal with either human or animal waste.
“To fully address this issue what we need is genetic analysis of the cryptosporidium that’s coming into our water treatment plants to identify the source of it whether it be wastewater treatment plants or agriculture,” Mr Hartigan said.
“We need the council, Uisce Éireann, the EPA, the HSE, and the Department of Agriculture to work together to find the sources of this pollution and to stop this pollution,” he added.
According to Cllr Teskey, councillors in his district (mentioned above) were informed by Uisce Éireann that agriculture was not the source of the issue.
“[We were told] That it was an internal problem in the plant that caused the cryptosporidium. It is also explained to us that it is the lack of investment in the filtration system that has caused this,” Mr Teskey said.
“It’s very important to note now and I would hate for it to be taken out of this room that the agriculture industry locally was any way responsible for this when it is not the case. We are aware that it was internally in the plant,” Mr Teskey added.
When cryptosporidium is detected and if a sufficient number of oocysts (a cyst containing a zygote ie. crypto) are detected, Uisce Éireann generally arranges for genotyping to be undertaken to try to determine the source.
According to a letter sent to Mr Hartigan by Uisce Éireann at the end of September this year and seen by this reporter, results to find the source of the cryptosporidium in the Foynes/Shannon Estuary Public Water Supply have been inconclusive, meaning they are not sure (at the time the letter was sent) if the cryptosporidium is caused by the agriculture industry.
“I’ve been in constant contact with Uisce Éireann, asking them over and over again to carry out genotyping to determine exactly where [the cryptosporidium] comes from,” Mr Hartigan said.
“Cryptosporidium doesn’t just have implications for human health, it also has implications on wildlife. There was a study in Wales where they looked at the impact of cryptosporidium on wild mammals and birds. It also impacts fish in the water,” he added.
According to the Green Party councillor, we are essentially putting faeces into water and then we are trying to clean the water before we drink it. That is essentially what the UV reactor will be doing, cleaning the faecal matter.
“The EPA have documentation as well to say it comes from agriculture or wastewater treatment plants and it increases significantly from March to June which is the calving and lambing season,” Mr Hartigan said.
“We are spending money on treating water instead of protecting the water courses,” he added.
According to the EPA, our water quality is largely impacted by excess nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) coming mainly from agriculture and urban wastewater discharges.
Agriculture, according to the EPA, affects the majority of affected water bodies in Ireland, affecting over 1,000.
Following new data on the water quality of rivers and lakes in June of this year, Dr Eimear Cotter, director of the EPA’s Office of Evidence and Assessment, said: “Clean water is essential for our health and wellbeing, our economy and for wildlife. The failure to improve water quality in 2022 and over the longer term is extremely disappointing.
“We will not meet our water quality objectives until nutrient levels are reduced in those areas where they are too high. Addressing this must be a priority for the agriculture sector and Uisce Éireann to reduce the losses of nutrients to water.”