Dublin Bay group calls for urgent action to improve water quality

Environmental action group SOS Dublin Bay has today published a policy document called ‘The water quality crisis in Dublin Bay – what is happening, and actions needed to protect the public’.

SOS Dublin Bay is calling on the Government to introduce more measures to protect sea swimmers and clean up Dublin Bay as it says there “is a serious and a more significant risk to swimmers than previously thought.”

The group says it has conducted “extensive research into data provided by Irish Water and the four local authorities in Dublin which reveals that in the four-year period 2017 to 2020, a total of 8.875 million cubic metres of untreated sewage and storm waters was discharged into Dublin Bay from overflow tanks located at the Ringsend Wastewater Treatment Plant.

“This figure does not include other significant discharges from the 410 Storm Water Overflows in the Dublin region which are not measured but are thought to exceed the discharges from the plant.”

The Ringsend plant discharges on average the equivalent of 74 Olympic-sized swimming pools of waste each month, usually occurring during storm periods when the Dublin Wastewater Treatment Facility reaches maximum capacity.

In an online survey of over 1200 people conducted in March, more than one in five (21.77%) “declared that they had been ill or suffered adverse health effects as a result of recreational activity they had recently undertaken in Dublin Bay.

Chairman of SOS Dublin Bay Gerard Jones said the group was “taken aback” by how much wastewater is being dumped into Dublin Bay and the health impact.

“Our research has revealed clear evidence of a significant ecological problem of which the public is unaware, but which is clearly having a negative impact on the health of bathers in particular.

“We have seen a major increase in year-round bathing in the Bay.

“People need to be informed about bathing conditions and periods of poor water quality.

“Dublin Bay is our city’s most treasured public amenity, but it is now heavily polluted and causing illness. There is a duty of care to protect public health and that obligation is certainly not being met.”

SOS Dublin Bay is calling for a series of short and long-term actions to be implemented as a matter of urgency.

Some of the short-term measures include year-round testing of water quality in Dublin Bay, the publishing of more, easily accessible information about water quality on public forums, and that the Ringsend plant use Ultra Violet treatment year-round to reduce the microbiological load of effluent from the centre, usually only used from June to September.

Longer term measures include the development of a new water treatment plant in Clonshaugh, accelerating the upgrade of the plant in Ringsend and introduce real-time testing using state-of-the-art buoys that transmit the results via 5G to telecommunication networks.

“There is a crisis in Dublin Bay which has led to the permanent closing of the Merrion beach as a bathing facility.

“Unless action is taken now, the bathing water is going to deteriorate further and could lead to more permanent closures of other Dublin beaches and popular bathing areas around the Bay.

“This is now a major public health issue and requires immediate action by local authorities, the Department of the Environment and the EPA” said Jones.