Apartments’ water supply contaminated by copper

ANOTHER contamination scare has hit Irish households as Environment Minister Dick Roche tried to allay concerns over water pollution.

While 90,000 people in Galway remain at risk from the cryptosporidium parasite, residents in a new housing development in Dublin have been warned to boil all drinking water after tests showed it contained twice the legal limit for copper.

It comes after claims that the health of 30,000 residents in the Clare region are also at risk, with reports of other water restrictions highlighted in the midlands.

The latest scare at Farmleigh Woods, Castleknock, was highlighted when a pet fish died and the water tested for high levels of copper.

With no problems recorded in the public water supply to the development, Fingal County Council is only advising residents in the 100-plus apartment complex not to drink tap water, urging those with medical conditions to contact their doctor.

Director of water services PJ Howell said: “It is okay for washing and cooking, but until this problem is identified properly and sorted out people have been advised not to drink the water. The levels of copper which we have in the public water supply are 00.4mgs per litre, and the permitted level is 2mgs per litre. If you were drinking something slightly in excess of that it wouldn’t be a major problem.”

He said the developers are taking the matter very seriously and are engaged in an in-depth investigation into the cause of the problem.

“The apartment complex here is more than 100 apartments, so it is quite a significant size with a lot of work possibly to rectify it.”

Meanwhile, the Green Party’s Brian Meaner has said the people of Clare, where he is deputy mayor and where a cautionary boil notice was put in place two years ago, are set to face the same water bug outbreak as Galway. Although the boil notice was lifted last October when a temporary filtration system was installed, vulnerable people — including the sick, elderly and newborn — are still warned not to drink tap water.

“Despite the installation of a filtration system, the cautionary boil notice has been in operation in Ennis and the surrounding area for the past two years. Cryptosporidum is already in the water supply and it may only be a matter of time, before levels surge and an outbreak occurs, like that which is now affecting Galway,” said Mr Meaner.

“Chlorination doesn’t solve the problem, which has been caused by human and animal sewerage contaminating the water supply at source.”