E-Coli alert prompts boil water notices

Thousands of residents in Co Clare have been issued with boil water notices after traces of E-Coli were found in the water supply, it emerged today.

The alert focuses on Ennis and surrounding townlands and has been blamed by the county council on a fault in the treatment system.

It comes just a day after a damning Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report revealed more than a third of the country’s water supplies pose a potential health risk.

“Clare County Council/Ennis Town Council wish to inform you that due to a malfunction of the chlorination equipment at the Drumcliff Water Treatment Plant, a low level of E-Coli has been detected in the supply,” a Clare County Council spokesperson said.

“The problem at the Water Treatment Plant has been rectified and on-going monitoring of the supply is taking place.

“As a precaution Clare County Council/ Ennis Town Council & the HSE (Mid West Area) wish to advise the consumers of the Ennis Public Water Supply that they should boil the water.”

The council advised that boiled water should be used for drinking, ice making, food preparation, washing teeth and should continue until told otherwise.

The notice applies to Ennis town as well as Clarecastle, Crusheen, Barefield, Doora, Drumcliff and Spancilhill.

The alert comes just a day after the EPA raised concerns about 339 or 36% of the country’s 944 public drinking water supplies over the level of treatment, standard of cleanliness or the presence of E-Coli.

Its water quality report noted that between March and August last year, 21 supplies serving over 113,000 people were issued with either a boil water notice or restriction of use, while E-Coli was found in 77 supplies at least once in 2006.

The 339 supplies were singled out because they either failed E-Coli standards at some point in the last two years, have inadequate levels of treatment, had elevated levels of nitrate, or were due for improvement works.

Meanwhile residents in the Castlerea area of Co Roscommon have also been advised to boil their water after a fault was detected in the chlorination treatment system.

However a spokeswoman for Roscommon County Council said a sample of the water had been taken and there was no evidence to suggest contamination.

She said the alert is expected to be lifted in the morning.