The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released a report on the Provision and Quality of Drinking Water in Ireland in year 2007 - 2008.
The report deals with the quality of drinking water received by households served by piped water supply schemes. It breaks these down between
- public schemes i.e. schemes operated by the County Council (PWS),
- group schemes receiving water from public schemes (PuGWS),
- private group schemes with their own source (PrGWS), and
- small private supplies (SPS).
97% of the population served by piped water schemes in the county receive water from public supplies either through PWS or PuGWS.
Overall Compliance
The overall compliance across all supplies monitored was 95.3% in 2007, a slight improvement on the 2006 figure of 95.1%.
Public Supplies (43 schemes)
Drinking water is tested for parameters under three tables. Public water supplies in Donegal registered compliance levels in 2007 under these tables as follows:
Table A : microbiological 99.5% compliant
Table B : chemical 99.6% compliant
Table C : Indicator 94.9% compliant
Three microbiological incidents (Table A) occurred during the year 2007, one incident in each of three supplies, Ballintra, Cullionboy and Leitermacaward water supplies. The issues were one-off and were dealt with promptly. Chlorine monitors and alarms have been installed on all public water supplies to provide instant response in cases of failure of chlorination equipment in the future.
Problems noted during 2007 in respect of Table B and Table C parameters (Chemical and Indicator parameters respectively) relate to Trihalomethanes (THMs) in Kilcar and Rosbeg supplies, and aluminium residual, turbidity, colour and iron issues in a number of supplies. The Council has plans to replace the source to resolve the issues at Rosbeg and Kilcar. Aluminium exceedances mentioned in the EPA report at East Inishowen have been resolved and are largely resolved at Frosses. Operational improvements have yielded improved quality results in East Inishowen. The new water treatment works that is in the process of being commissioned in Frosses will resolve the outstanding aluminium issues.
The RAL (Remedial Action List) published by the EPA in conjunction with this report is a list of public water schemes where quality issues have arisen. The Council is working closely with the EPA and the Department of Environment to ensure that necessary improvement works are carried out to resolve problems that have arisen.
Private Group Schemes and Private Supplies
The EPA report highlights problems of non-compliance of private group water supply schemes (PrGWS) and small private supplies (SPS). The following are the compliance rates for those supplies
PrGWS SPS
Table A : microbiological 59.7% compliant 56.5%
Table B : chemical 100 % compliant 99.2%
Table C : Indicator 86.7% compliant 80.3%
The Council has an ongoing programme to upgrade private GWS supplies. This programme already delivered improvements which will be reflected in the 2008 EPA drinking water report. Significant investment will be required through the Rural Water Programme in order to complete this upgrade programme.