DUBLIN COUNCILS HAVE confirmed that a number of Dublin bathing areas are closed until tomorrow evening after another wastewater spill.

Following Status-Yellow rainfall last night, Irish Water confirmed to Dublin City Council and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council that wastewater spilled from their water treatment plant.

Irish Water refers to the liquid that spills when there’s heavy rain as “stormwater”, and says it’s mainly rainwater which also includes wastewater and debris from the sewer network. This can include sanitary items that shouldn’t be flushed.

As a result, a bathing ban is now in place for Dollymount, Merrion, Sandymount, Seapoint, Sandycove, the Forty Foot, Killiney and White Rock. These will be in place until at the earliest 6pm tomorrow, after which the situation will be reviewed.

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown said it will “continue to assess the risk to water quality based on test results and information provided by Irish Water”, and that bathing water results will be published here.

“Water testing results are available approximately two days after sampling,” it said.

Dublin City Council said it will “continue to monitor water quality at each of these bathing waters and keep the public informed of bathing water quality”.

The Council regrets this weather based event and will lift the prohibition notices as soon as the water quality results are at the required standard, in consultation with the EPA and the HSE.

It added that a season-long bathing ban was already in place in Merrion and Sandymount, which will remain in place.

Spillages of stormwater occurred last night from the Ringsend Wastewater Treatment Plant, the West Pier Pumping Station and the Killiney Pumping Station in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown.

Sam Boal Sam Boal

In a statement to TheJournal.ie, Irish Water said that the stormwater overflow operated in compliance with regulations, and was fully screened and settled.

“When there is unusually heavy and sustained rainfall, such as during a Status Yellow weather warning, the amount of water entering the sewer network can be more than the capacity of a plant and the holding tanks.

In that case, to prevent the sewer network from backing up and causing flooding of roads and properties, the storm water is released to the environment. These overflows contains wastewater that is highly diluted with rainwater.

Irish Water have notified the EPA and the Local Authorities of this overflow.

Bathing bans are also in place in Trá na bhForbacha and An Trá Mór, Coill Rua in Co Galway, Coolmaine in Co Cork, and in the Velvet Strand in Finglas.

- with reporting from Cónal Thomas