Balbriggan Beach

meditraitor

This a f***ing disgrace........

Popular beaches, including Portmarnock, Skerries and Greystones, all lost their Blue Flag status last year.

In all, water quality deteriorated at 15 beaches and four beaches were singled out as repeat offenders that consistently failed to meet even minimum standards, according to 'The Quality of Bathing Water in Ireland report', 2007, released by the EPA yesterday.

They include Balbriggan beach in north county Dublin, Clifden beach and Na Forbacha beach in Co Galway, and Youghal beach in Co Cork.
The exceptional amount of rainfall last summer was cited as one of the reasons for the poor quality of water at most of the beaches, due to the ensuing run-off of sewage, animal and agricultural waste.

Sewage

But the ongoing practice of local authorities pumping raw sewage into the sea near bathing areas was cited as the reason for the unacceptably high levels of faecal coliforms at Balbriggan and Clifden.

Clifden has failed to meet minimum standards for three of the past five years, while Balbriggan has failed minimum standards for four out of the past five years.

Fingal County Council, which is responsible for Balbriggan and three of the beaches that lost their status last year, was cited in the report for allowing untreated sewage to be discharged into the sea, just two kilometres south of Balbriggan beach, while outflows from the pumping station next to the beach "contributed to the breach of standards". The EPA's Office of Environmental Enforcement (OEE) also recommended that the council provide the public with "clear information on the risk to public health and whether it is safe to bathe."
Galway County Council was also called upon by the OEE "to address a number of issues to improve the operation of the Clifden waste water treatment plant", which it cited as "the most significant source of contamination of bathing waters."

One of the report's authors, Dr Tom Stafford, senior scientific officer with the EPA's Office of Environmental Assessment, said improper treatment of waste by local authorities is the still main cause of pollution making beaches unsafe.

"There are a number of areas that are failing due to sewage," he told the Irish Independent. "But all of them are in the process of applying for or putting sewage treatment in place," he added.

Overall, the report found that the overwhelming majority of beaches around the country, (97pc) meet the basic or minimum EU Mandatory Standards.

Environment Minister John Gormley said that overall water quality is good, and he is confident it will improve under a number of new sewerage treatment programmes due to start next year or already on-stream.

"The new standards for bacteria levels are strict. The standards set for a classification of 'excellent' are roughly twice as stringent as the current 'guide values' which are used, for example, as a basis for the award of Blue Flags," he said.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/blue-flags-lowered-at-13-popular-beaches-in-2007-1368534.html

If it was skerries beach Fingal CC would have sorted it years ago. but as usual they dont give a flying f about balbriggan

blastman

They've been getting away with this sh!t (pun intended) for years now, doesn't exactly come as a shock, but that doesn't make it any less of a disgrace.

grahamo

I used to fish the odd time off the end of the Harbour. Haven't bothered the last couple of years.No point, how could fish survive in that? Its disgusting. You can see the raw sewage flowing out of the harbour as the tide goes out.

Moonbeam

My initial reaction on reading that was EUUGHHH.
I didn't think they did things like that anymore.
I suppose it is one for our local TDS.

greatgoal

shame on you fingal co.council,shame on you:mad:

wow sierra

I agree it is a disgrace. Maybe this bad publicity will encourage them to do something.

I was under the impression they were trying to sort this out by building a treatment plant in Donabate - but this seems to be on hold now due to local opposition. Maybe someone in the know in Donabate can let us know what the current state of play is with the plans for a treatment plant there or any other alternative site.

Gillo

Have Fingal Co Co made any comment yet?

Admittedly there's not a lot they can say, but it would be a start if they recognised that there is a problem.

Fingleberries

wow sierra wrote: »

I agree it is a disgrace. Maybe this bad publicity will encourage them to do something.

I was under the impression they were trying to sort this out by building a treatment plant in Donabate - but this seems to be on hold now due to local opposition. Maybe someone in the know in Donabate can let us know what the current state of play is with the plans for a treatment plant there or any other alternative site.

Fingal Co. Co. put a water treatment plant near Barnagheera, but it was already too small by the time they built it for the volume of construction in the area (that they supposedly control, too).

They probably won't bother with Balbriggan beach in the future either (why break with tradition, eh), because of the Port that's going to be going in north of the town is probably going to screw up the water further.

I agree, though, that the council defintely spend more time and effort on other beaches in the area - Malahide and Skerries being notable examples. It's a shame because the beach itself in Balbriggan is in a nice location.

meditraitor

Fingleberries wrote: »

I agree, though, that the council defintely spend more time and effort on other beaches in the area - Malahide and Skerries being notable examples. It's a shame because the beach itself in Balbriggan is in a nice location.

Balbriggan beach has been the named as the one of the worst beaches in the country since the EPA started testing properly

After a quick search I found these results from a few years ago

http://www.epa.ie/downloads/pubs/water/bathing/epa_quality_bathing_water_2003.pdf

Four bathing areas failed to comply with the
National standard for faecal coliforms. These
were Balbriggan (Dublin Fingal), Both Balbriggan and
Keem also failed the National standard for
total coliforms


EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). The Quality of Bathing Water in Ireland (2002).
Three bathing areas failed to comply with the
mandatory values specified in Bathing Water
Directive. (CEC, 1976). Balbriggan failed to
meet the mandatory value for both total and
faecal coliform


http://www.epa.ie/downloads/pubs/water/bathing/epa_quality_bathing_water_2005.pdf

BALBRIGGAN Dublin Fingal : Seawater: Faecal Coliforms, Total Coliforms (only 2 tested for)

Its strange considering Trevor is a "local" (when it suits him) that this problem has never been tackled by the so called greens!

The press release from Gormley is even more cringeworthy

Minister for the Environment John Gormley says extra investment will improve our high standard of bathing waters. Stating the obvious

The Minister was pleased WTF to note that the results for the 2007 bathing season show that the quality of bathing water in Ireland is very good, with 97% of bathing areas complying with EU mandatory standards and 80% complying with (stricter) guide standards.

The Minister stated: "This Government has been fully committed to maintaining is he serious here and improving the high standards of our bathing waters. On the 20th March this year, I introduced new bathing water quality regulations to transpose the new EU Bathing Water Directive into National Law. The new regulations give a stronger focus to the protection of public health and on the management of bathing waters."