By Cianna McNally
cianna@monaghanpost.com
TWELVE public drinking water supplies in Co. Monaghan have made it onto a list compiled by the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) of public water supplies in Ireland requiring remedial action.
The supplies, Carrickmacross, Clones, Clontibret, Drumully, Emyvale, Glaslough, Inniskeen, Lough Egish RWSS, Monaghan, Newbliss, Pullis Cottages P.W.S.S. and Smithborough make up the 339 public water supplies from around the country named on the Remedial Action List.
Part of the EPA’s drinking water quality report the list contains supplies deemed by the EPA as requiring examination from source to consumer to determine whether replacements or upgrades are needed, or whether operational practices should be improved.
A supply is included on the list if it fails to meet the ecoli standard at some point in the last two years, has inadequate treatment such as no treatment other than chlorination or poor turbidity removal or excessive levels of aluminium in the treated water, or shows elevated levels of nitrate. Supplies were also included for being unable to meet the new bromate or trihalomethanes standards coming into force at the end of 2008.
Water supplies are also included if a lack of operational control at treatment plants has been indicated or if the Health Service Executive has identified them as needing improvements. “This list will remain a working list with the possibility of supplies being added or removed as work is completed and further information becomes available. The fact that a public water supply is on this list does not mean that the water produced by the supply is unsafe to drink,” an EPA statement reads.
The EPA is now assessing the information to determine whether a supply should be replaced, requires capital investment for upgrading and/or requires significant changes in operational practices.
