water quality

kingofthecastle

Just wondering about the drinking water quality of the water in charlesland at the moment. Noticed slight brown shade to the water recently, from the cold tap. Just wondering had anyone else noticed it. i live in charlesland grove. Also wondering if I wanted to get this checked out am i going to wicklow county council or the managenment company. Are we in a public or private group scheme?? any help appreciated

Alun

I don't know about the water in Greystones, but the water in Bray comes from the Vartry reservoirs in Roundwood. These are fed by the Vartry River which has it's source just below the Sugarloaf and which is also fed by streams coming down of Djouce and White Hill. As a result, especially after heavy rainfall, it sometimes gets a bit of a brownish tinge from the peat it's passing through, but from what I can tell it's nothing to worry about, and would be very difficult to remove completely.

Maudi

Alun wrote: »

I don't know about the water in Greystones, but the water in Bray comes from the Vartry reservoirs in Roundwood. These are fed by the Vartry River which has it's source just below the Sugarloaf and which is also fed by streams coming down of Djouce and White Hill. As a result, especially after heavy rainfall, it sometimes gets a bit of a brownish tinge from the peat it's passing through, but from what I can tell it's nothing to worry about, and would be very difficult to remove completely.

what twaddle!theres no way the ops water is brown from running thru the bog!

ad1234

hi,
im in charlesland wood and noticed pure white in colour water during he week if its any help. it ran through though. hope its nothing to worry about.

Alun

Maudi wrote: »

what twaddle!theres no way the ops water is brown from running thru the bog!

You've obviously never seen a mountain stream in the Wicklow mountains in full spate after heavy rain, or looked in any of the mountain lakes there.

It's not suspended vegetable matter that can easily be strained out mechanically at the waterworks, but is due to the leaching of tannins (think tea!) from the peat. The various chemicals used in the treatment process will remove (bleach out) some of the discolouration, but not all of it. I once lived in an area in the north of England that had much worse discolouration than what we have here, but it was down to the same thing.

pixbyjohn

Will these filtering beds not take the brown colour out of the water ?

Roundwood Filter Beds built circa 1932 by pixbyjohn, on Flickr

Alun

pixbyjohn wrote: »

Will these filtering beds not take the brown colour out of the water ?

Like I said, from what I was told, it's tannin leached from the peat that discolours the water, rather than anything actually suspended in the water, so you could leave it for a year and it wouldn't settle out.

Now, I'm going on what I was told (by the local water engineers) when I lived in England, where I experienced the same thing happening on a regular basis, so I'm assuming it's the same here .. could be wrong though. Maybe if anyone's really that interested they could ask someone in the know, although from my attempts in the past to get a clear answer from them (regarding the official hardness figure for the Bray water supply) I wouldn't hold out much hope.

bogtreader

If the water has been turned off for a repair it can be discoloured for a while

Alun

bogtreader wrote: »

If the water has been turned off for a repair it can be discoloured for a while

In my experience, the kind of discolouration you see after a repair is usually much darker and lasts a much shorter time than what I'm talking about.

Maudi

Maudi wrote: »

Alun wrote: »

I don't know about the water in Greystones, but the water in Bray comes from the Vartry reservoirs in Roundwood. These are fed by the Vartry River which has it's source just below the Sugarloaf and which is also fed by streams coming down of Djouce and White Hill. As a result, especially after heavy rainfall, it sometimes gets a bit of a brownish tinge from the peat it's passing through, but from what I can tell it's nothing to worry about, and would be very difficult to remove completely.

what twaddle!theres o way the ops water is brown from running thru the bog!

dats odd im just bsck from a six hour hike in the hollywood area so yes im very familiar with the lakes and brown water mountain streams...and thats not whats happening here...most likely is that work has been carried out somewhere along the water pipe.

Robertr

Noticed the same thing in the Grove also. When I run a bath for the kids you can see a brownish tinge to the water alright. Was not there before.

woodsy2

AFAIK the water for most of greystones comes from the vartry resevoir, but I was under the impression charlesland was serviced by a private water scheme up in drummin if that's of any use to anyone, there's a little building off blackberry lane that has something to do with it anyway, I'll see if I can find the site where I read this.

pixbyjohn

woodsy2 wrote: »

AFAIK the water for most of greystones comes from the vartry resevoir, but I was under the impression charlesland was serviced by a private water scheme up in drummin if that's of any use to anyone, there's a little building off blackberry lane that has something to do with it anyway, I'll see if I can find the site where I read this.

The small reservoir in Drummin is fed from the Vartry reservoir. The reason for the Drummin unit is to ensure that the required pressure is maintained for the area that it serves.

Maudi

pixbyjohn wrote: »

woodsy2 wrote: »

AFAIK the water for most of greystones comes from the vartry resevoir, but I was under the impression charlesland was serviced by a private water scheme up in drummin if that's of any use to anyone, there's a little building off blackberry lane that has something to do with it anyway, I'll see if I can find the site where I read this.

The small reservoir in Drummin is fed from the Vartry reservoir. The reason for the Drummin unit is to ensure that the required pressure is maintained for the area that it serves.

thats interesting pixbyjohn..i know blackberry lane (a bit) theres a reservoir there?somewhere?

Charlie-Bravo

Very interesting point about the Drummin reservoir and possible feed to Charlesland...I had a look at the OSi map for the location - The street map shows a rectangular water reservoir (but not annotated). Then when you switch to ortho 2005 there's no visual existence of a reservoir. Then switch to ortho 2000 and 1995 you can see the rectangular shape. I take it is covered and there's a pump house adjacent?

pixbyjohn

Water supply
Greystones/Delgany is served by the Vartry Waterworks at
Roundwood (owned and managed by Dublin City Council).
Greystones is served by the Drummin Service Reservoir, which
has a capacity of 2 million gallons, which approximates to a
two-day reserve capacity supply.
The Charlesland area is served from a combination of
the Drummin Service Reservoir and the Priestnewtown
Reservoir, which also serves Kilcoole and has a capacity of
500,000 gallons.
The Kindlestown Hill area of Delgany cannot be gravity fed
from the Drummin Reservoir due to height constraints.

Alun

pixbyjohn wrote: »

The small reservoir in Drummin is fed from the Vartry reservoir. The reason for the Drummin unit is to ensure that the required pressure is maintained for the area that it serves.

It's the same in Bray. There's a small reservoir on Giltspur Lane, the cul-de-sac that leads off the roundabout by Woodies at the start of the Southern Cross. You can see it here http://g.co/maps/65jdd ... the two circular shapes to the right of the house.

I understand there's one in Enniskerry too, but I don't know where exactly.