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OVER HALF A million people in Ireland are drinking from “at risk” public water supplies, while the number of long-term boil water notices in place almost doubled last year.
According to a new report by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), over 99.7% of public water supplies comply with bacterial and chemical limits, which means it is safe to drink.
However, the EPA said that many supplies still lack robust treatment measures to guarantee their long-term resilience and safety, and warned that progress to remove lead from supply networks to protect public health is “far too slow”.
Last year, the number of people served by “at risk” supplies increased to 561,000, up from 481,000 in 2022. This is mostly due to detections of persistent Trihalomethanes (THMs) and cryptosporidium.
THMs are chemicals that may be found in water treated with chlorine. They are currently classified as “possibly carcinogenic” to humans.
One-in-twenty supplies failed to meet the THM standard last year, with supplies on the EPA’s Remedial Action List for THMs impacting almost 300,000 people.
The agency said greater effort is needed by Uisce Éireann to implement improvements at supplies to minimise exposure to THM’s, including at major supplies such as in Limerick City and Kilkenny City.
Meanwhile, boil water notices impacted 254,000 people last year. The number of boil water notices in place for more than 30 days stood at 46, up from 25 in 2022.
The EPA said the recent trend of significantly more long-term boil water notices “needs to be reversed by Uisce Éireann and requires proactive measures to address the underlying causes and improve the resilience of these supplies”.
On the issue of lead in drinking water supplies, the EPA said that despite Ireland having a “national lead strategy” in place, the Department of Housing has yet to publish a report on progress with strategy.
This means that the number and location of public buildings affected, the number of people exposed, and plans to remove lead are still not known.
It said the “slow progress” by Uisce Éireann to remote lead connections in the public network continues.
Last year, Uisce Éireann replaced over 9,500 lead connections (over 10,000 in 2022), bringing the total number of replacements to around 61,000 out of approximately 180,000.
“At this rate, Uisce Éireann is highly unlikely to meet its commitment to remove all public-side lead pipework by 2026,” the report said.
The forthcoming reduced lead limit from the Drinking Water Directive, the slow rate of lead replacement, and the lack of updates under the National Lead Strategy, emphasises the need for more leadership at a national level.
“These works must not be delayed further as they are the only sustainable way to reduce people’s exposure to lead in drinking water.”
EPA programme manager Noel Byrne said Uisce Éireann “must accelerate the rollout of their lead mitigation plan to deal with the public supply network”.
“The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and Department of Health must outline their plans for lead replacement in public buildings and householders with lead pipes in their homes should avail of the enhanced lead remediation grant scheme to protect their health,” he said.
The EPA Drinking Water Quality in Public Supplies 2023 report and the complete list of “at risk” public water supplies can be found on the EPA’s website.
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And to think they actually tried to charge us for it a few years ago.
@Stephen Heffernan: That was to raise funds to improve the system, in fairness.
I don’t understand how ‘over 99.7% of public water supplies comply with bacterial and chemical limits’ if ‘One-in-twenty supplies failed to meet the THM standard last year’.
@Brendan O’Brien: some systems supply low numbers , these are usually the problem ones
@Jimmy Wallace: Exactly.
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: The way it’s reported here is confusing Last October the EPA reported that in 2022, 16 private group schemes supplying 14,000 people failed the standard for THMs. To cite these as ‘one in twenty’ schemes gives a deceptively worrying impression of the problem.
@Brendan O’Brien: the charge was to show potential buyers how much they could gouge us for not improving the infrastructure since very little has changed except the company name and the boil water notices no longer make headli n es
@Spanner: *gouge us for, not for improving
* headlines.
@Brendan O’Brien: You don’t charge for something in advance with the promise of improving the system afterwards. When a new service is sold, the infrastructure is already there, that’s why some internet providers won’t even sell you certain fast broadband because is not available in your house, they can’t just take your money promising you that they’ll have it up and running in a year.
The water infrastructure should be perfectly running, like Norwegian tap water, meaning better than Evian water everywhere in the country before they can even consider charging for it.
@Brendan O’Brien: THMs isn’t in untreated water, it’s a carcinogenic chemical accidentally generated in the water treatment plant. So it’s not like bacterial contamination.
It’s generatesd when chlorine, used to disinfect water, chemically reacts with organic matter in untreated water.
This organic matter can be from decomposed leaves, algae, fish poop, but not bacteria itself. The organic matter is very fine particles and organic molecules, hard to filter out before the chlorination stage. It is possible to remove it, but it’s costly.
Treatment plants in Ireland are more likely to generate THMs than most other European countries because more of our drinking water comes from surface water, lakes and rivers, rather than boreholes. Rivers and lakes are more likely to have organic contamination than water from boreholes.
We also have excess organic matter generated by agricultural pollution, increasing algal blooms. About half of Irish rivers are affected by agricultural pollution, excess nitrate and phosphorus. This also means more bacteria, and the way to combat that, is more chlorine, and more risk of THMs.
Another problem is seasonal, during autumn leaves can fall into rivers and resivours, increasing organic mater. Heavy rain can also cause organic matter to end up in rivers and resivours. For example, heavy rain up in the Dublin and Wicklow mountains washes peat into the resivours, increasing organic matter (the upland bogs used to be covered in oak forests, but since they were cut down centuries ago, the bogs started eroding. The brown colour of upland rivers isn’t natural. Peat runoff e.g. why the Arctic Char, a species of fish normally found in lakes much futher north, went extinct in several of our lakes, including Lough Dan in Wicklow. It went extinct in that lake in the 1980s or 1990s).
https://www.thejournal.ie/water-pollution-ireland-6406308-Jun2024/
@Brendan O’Brien: It was a money pit then. It’s a money pit now. Decades have gone by while revenue was collected and not used to upgrade our infrastructure. No one is accountable. The public shouldn’t have to buy shares! Our government has a surplus and Ireland has plenty of rain.
@Stephen Heffernan: they will yet again the halfwits will soon find by mass immigration like everything else it will need more funding of course its all well thought out beforehand.
I love the taste of rusty lead pipes. Also love the flavour of chlorine and especially love the peer reviewed journal called lancet when they said the neurotoxin in the water sodium
Fluoride is doing nothing to your teeth but everything to your brain. Yay gwan Ireland
@Leinsterprincess: ‘This investigation has therefore shown substantial benefit of water fluoridation in children, with few noticeable fluorosis disadvantages, even though a parental questionnaire revealed‘. – Stephen, K. (1999) Use of fluoride – the lancet, The Lancet. Available at: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(05)75343-5/fulltext (Accessed: 03 July 2024). The level of fluoride in Irish drinking water is set at between 0.6ppm to 0.8ppm which is less than half the maximum permitted by the EU.
@Jack Hayes: That study has to do with discoloration of teeth: a relatively minor problem. There are some causes for concern about possible neurotoxic effects in children, though possibly not at the fluoride levels used in Irish drinking water.
‘Fourteen recent cross-sectional studies from endemic areas with naturally high fluoride concentrations in groundwater supported the previous findings of cognitive deficits in children with elevated fluoride exposures. Three recent prospective studies from Mexico and Canada with individual exposure data showed that early-life exposures were negatively associated with children’s performance on cognitive tests. Neurotoxicity appeared to be dose-dependent, and tentative benchmark dose calculations suggest that safe exposures are likely to be below currently accepted or recommended fluoride concentrations in drinking water.’
@Brendan O’Brien: Well put. Evidence that it’s harmful. Given that there is no control or oversight of dosage it would seem to pose an unnecessary risk. Medical procedure should be circumspect and work under the concept of Premium non nocere – First do no harm. The HSE’s continued use of fluoride, even at lower than recommend levels, is potentially malfeasance imo
@Ray Dunne: But the lead pipes are all fed from cast iron mains?????
Can’t drink from our tap water it’s gross the smell of chlorine and taste is vile so we’ve no option but to buy bottled water and now the ridiculous return policy on bottles/ cans is a joke!
@Michele Milne: A simple water filter pitcher will remove chlorine (almost) completely and cost almost nothing per litre.
@Michele Milne: Buy 5L bottles
@Thesaltyurchin: I do thanks
@Wolfgang Bonow: thanks did think about it but were selling up next year so not going to bother now :)
More scare tactics leading up to another go at water charges.
@bruce banner: Hope you’re not too scared. Maybe talk to a friend or family member if you get too anxious?
So fix it, you winkers. Or is it the last attempt reason to come back with more taxes ? Feeling so confident after the election ?
When I get into my car I am ‘at risk’ of having an accident. Meaningless headline.
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill:I find at risk beer is far worse on the system
I’m just so grateful every day for the fluoridation of our water. One size fits all medical experiments with no oversight or control of dosage is obviously the best thing for our dental health. All the “do your own research” crowd are moaning about neurotoxicity but I haven’t ever needed to buy fluoride toothpaste for myself or the kids so thank you HSE, you’re doing god’s work x
@Darth O’Leary: Science and religion in perfect unison. lol
@Thesaltyurchin: Some days I’m drawn to Kierkegaard’s Christ and the lessons of life but usually I’m not at all religious. I save my blind belief… Ahem.. sorry… “Faith” for my betters above stairs in the HSE. I’d be interested to hear your own opinion on the potential neurotoxicity of the fluoride added to water. Am I a conspiracy theorists now or antivax maybe. I can never keep up, myself
@Thesaltyurchin: that came across a bit rude maybe. Apologies. Genuinely interested
@Darth O’Leary: The first of the existentialists, couldn’t release the ‘curling stone’ of belief. We have R.O. from a well but they tell me I need it (F), or my country teeth will fall out… Me too. Apologies.
@Thesaltyurchin: Ah poor Søren. Such mighty intellect shrouded in such heavy superstition. His pain is so familiar. All our pain is so familiar to each other. Buddha was probably on to something. Thanks for the reply
In olden times people drank beer rather than chance the water..
Let’s follow their lead Slainte.
Sure lead adds sweetness to water, let’s add that instead!
If only we had some sort of system in place to raise the extra funds we require to update our water infrastructure. Surely with the whinging and moaning about the poor infrastructure people would welcome this? A small fee even, a few Euro every week. Well worth it. Less than the price of a pint.
@Sun Rise: They take enough tax from working people as it is. If the government wasn’twasting tax money hand over fist then we could have nice things but they’re seemingly incompetent. Giving them more money isn’t going to solve that problem
@Sun Rise: get fooked!
@Sun Rise: Too many dense people here I am afraid !!
Typical replies from the sheep. Abuse and ill informed waffled one liners. Keep bleating lads. Keep bleating. It won’t help you make a success of your lives. You own your failure and success.
.Uisce Eireann have just announced that they are to build a pipeline from Limerick to Dublin at a projected cost of 6 Billion Euro. At the same time the EPA have expressed their concern about THM’s in the water supply to Limerick. The projected supply to Dublin is being sourced alongside the source which the EPA have issued concers about on the shannon. All this time almost 50% of the existing water flowing into the pipes in Dublin is leaking into the ground. Is this project rational, prudent, or good government in supporting it?
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