A swimming ban which had been in place at Kilkee beach has been lifted.
The beach remained closed yesterday amid fears of increased bacteria levels following heavy rainfall over the weekend.
But businesses in the West Clare Tourist hotspot are hitting out over how the whole situation has been handled by the authorities as Clare FM’s Fiona Cahill reports…
Kilkee beach was closed last week after an electrical fault at the local wastewater treatment plant resulted in the discharge of raw sewage into the sea.
But now, both Irish Water and Clare County Council say that issues at the station have been resolved and that the swimming ban would have been lifted but for heavy rainfall this past weekend.
This, it’s believed, would lead to excess water running off land into the sea, which may have led to elevated bacteria levels in the water.
However, the all-clear has been granted in the past hour with Clare County Council announcing that the restrictions have been lifted, following consultations with the HSE.
Senior Executive Engineer with the local authority, Cyril Feeney beleives it was the right decision to extend the ban.
Authorities are still coming under fire, however, for the way the situation was handled.
Kilkee businessman Cillian Murphy says officials, and elected representatives, have been too slow to respond.
Clare’s Junior Minister has added his voice to criticism of the situation in Kilkee.
Fine Gael’s Pat Breen says back up generators at the local wastewater treatment station should never have failed in the first place.
This lunchtime, Kilkee is fully back in business.
Lifeguards are on duty once more, and the Blue Flag is flying, and local businesses will hope the issues of recent days won’t keep tourists away.
*FULL STATEMENT FROM CLARE COUNTY COUNCIL:
Clare County Council, on the advice of the Health Service Executive (HSE), has today lifted restrictions relating to public bathing at Kilkee beach.
Public bathing notices and red flags indicating that swimming is prohibited at Kilkee were originally put in place on Wednesday (26 July) due to the malfunction of a pumping station which has since been rectified by Irish Water. The swimming prohibition was maintained yesterday (Monday) due to the possibility of increased levels of bacteria in the bathing water following heavy rainfall over the weekend.
On the advice of the HSE and following analysis of water samples taken on Monday, Clare Council today announced the lifting of all restrictions relating to bathing at Kilkee.
Lifeguards are on duty while the Blue Flag is once again flying at the beach.
FULL STATEMENT FROM IRISH WATER:
In order to deal with queries in relation to the Kilkee Pump Station, the following is a full account of the history relating to the station.
Issued July 31 9pm – Irish Water carried out a routine health and safety audit of the Kilkee Pump Station, which is over 40 years old, in November 2016. A number of issues were identified in particular the surge vessels were found to be in need of upgrading.
Due to the complex nature of these works some elements have been completed but the full programme of works will take a couple of more months to be finalised.
In December 2016 there was an issue with a storm rising main at the station which burst. As a result a precautionary do not swim notice was imposed on the beach. While works continue to upgrade the pump station, the notice was lifted in consultation with the HSE and Clare County Council in May of this year.
Due to operational electrical issues in the Kilkee Pump Station early on Wednesday morning last week, July 26, this caused the pumps to be out of service for a number of hours. This led to a discharge of wastewater to the Victoria stream in Kilkee for a period of time. The HSE and the EPA were notified and a precautionary bathing prohibition notice was put in place by the HSE for Kilkee beach to protect public health.
The pump station resumed operations at 11am on Wednesday but the bathing restriction remained in place until today to allow for a sampling programme.
This issue has been resolved and the pump station is fully operational. Irish Water confirm that from 11am on Wednesday, July 26, no further discharges arising from this incident have taken place in Kilkee. Bacterial bathing water testing undertaken by Clare County Council has demonstrated that the bacterial water quality has been restored in the Kilkee area.
Both Irish Water and Clare County Council are aware of electrical issues at the Kilkee Pump Station. These are being addressed with the ESB as part of the ongoing upgrade works. An old generator, over 30 years old, which was in extremely poor condition, was taken off site in May to see if it could be refurbished. However, this was not possible and the procurement process to purchase a new generator commenced. An order to purchase will be issued in the next couple of days.
A temporary generator has been in place since last Friday, July 28 and is fully operational. The pump station has been manned on a 24 hour basis since last Thursday night. The temporary generator will remain in place until the permanent generator is installed.
Irish Water would like to apologise to locals and visitors to the Kilkee area for this recent incident which is now resolved and assure them that the programme of necessary upgrade works to the existing Kilkee Pump Station which were identified during a routine health and safety audit last November will continue for another couple of months. Once complete the pump station should be resilient to normal weather events.
Irish Water is available to meet members of the local Chamber of Commerce and bring them on a tour of the pump station to demonstrate the problems and highlight the upgrade works that have been completed to date. The utility has been trying to get in touch with the Chamber today to explain the ongoing works with expenditure to date close to €0.5 million having been invested in upgrading the pump station. Irish Water also wishes to explain to the Chamber that the latest restriction notice is unrelated to the pump station or Irish Water and is as a result of recent heavy rainfall.
Clare County Council has announced this evening that a revised bathing water prohibition notice will be issued for Kilkee as excess rainfall has occurred during the last 24 hours in the Kilkee area. Clare County Council, on the advice of the Health Service Executive (HSE), has announced that due to the possibility of elevated levels of bacteria in the bathing water arising from heavy rainfall over the weekend, swimming is prohibited at Kilkee beach. Further sampling is scheduled to take place to assess the bathing water quality and Clare County Council will liaise with the HSE the in coming days when results are available from this testing This is not associated with the pump station issue of last week.
