Last week’s EPA report on water quality confirmed the “excellent” quality of Westmeath’s water supplies, according to county manager Dan McLoughlin.
Commenting on the report, which found that the overall rate of compliance with drinking water standards in Westmeath during 2007 was 96.9 per cent, Mr McLoughlin noted that all public water supplies in the county have undergone measures to ensure increased protection.
“Westmeath is fortunate to have excellent water supplies, with modern water treatment facilities in place. The water treatment plant at Lough Owel supplies the majority of drinking water in Westmeath and includes sophisticated micro filtration technology that significantly reduces the risk of contamination by Cryptosporidium,” said Mr McLoughlin.
“In order to provide the same level of security on all public water supplies, the council has installed ultraviolet disinfection systems on its other water treatment plants, including the recently upgraded Athlone water treatment plant, to reduce the risk of Cryptosporidium contamination in these supplies.
“Overall, the EPA report confirms that drinking water in Westmeath continues to be of excellent quality, both from public water supplies and private group schemes.”
The report from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA ) presents the results of monitoring carried out by local authorities during 2007.
In 2007, the HSE carried out 3,284 individual tests on drinking water in Westmeath, with the overall rate of compliance with drinking water standards found to be 96.9 per cent, a drop from the 99.1 per cent achieved in in 2006.
According to Westmeath County Council, the reduction was primarily due to poor water quality in a small number of private supplies for which statistical data was included for the first time in 2007, and which serve very few people. The quality of drinking water in public water supplies and group water supplies continues to be excellent.
There were no enforcement actions taken by the EPA against Westmeath County Council in respect of drinking water supplies during 2007.
There was one incident of E.coli contamination of a public water supply in Westmeath in 2007, which was due to a short-term power supply failure at a re-chlorination station. Arising from a separate incident, a boil water notice was issued for the Ballinahown supply in August 2008, but the supply has since been replaced. All private group water schemes were free of E.coli contamination, thus were of excellent quality
