Council responds to Rush Beach water quality failure

FINGAL County Council said it has noted an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report recently published, which showed that Rush South Beach failed to comply with minimum mandatory standards for bathing water quality.

Rush South Beach was one of only four designated bathing areas in the country to have received the

‘poor’ bathing water quality status in the report for 2012.

Fingal County Council has 10 designated bathing areas along the coast. The remaining nine Fingal beaches were all classified as either ‘good’ (five beaches) or ‘sufficient’ (four beaches) quality status.

A spokeswoman for Fingal County Council said that with regard to Rush South Beach, 11 bathing water samples were collected for this location during the bathing season 2012.

“Only one of the 11 samples failed to comply with the mandatory bathing water limit for E.Coli (taken on July 31) and this resulted in a temporary beach closure, and an automatic classification of ‘poor’ status for this beach for the 2012 season,

? she told Northside People.

“No particular source of pollution was identified as contributing to the beach closure. However, there was a major pollution incident identified in a river that flows into the catchment of the designated bathing area.

“This pollution source was identified on August 15 and may have gone unnoticed prior to that date.

?

The council’s Portrane Wastewater Treatment Plant and network upgrade project is currently underway.

“When completed it will result in a significant improvement in the quality of bathing water along this general outfall area,

? the spokeswoman added.

“Portions of Rush and Lusk are already connected to the new plant, and applications for funding to continue with the next phases of the project are currently with the Department of the Environment.

?