THE BOIL WATER notice for 600,000 people in the greater Dublin area is to remain in place to “protect the health of customers”, Irish Water has confirmed.
The notice, which was issued on Monday, impacts people supplied by the Leixlip Water Treatment Plant.
The affected areas include parts of Fingal; parts of the Dublin City Council and South Dublin County Council regions; parts of Kildare, and Dunboyne in Meath.
Irish Water, Fingal County Council senior management and Minister Eoghan Murphy met this morning at the treatment plant to discuss the “mitigation measures that could be put in place to minimise the risk of the old plant not being able to treat very cloudy water”.
An Irish Water spokesperson this evening said meetings are ongoing with the EPA and the HSE in a bid to lift the notice “as quickly and as safely as possible”, adding: “Irish Water’s primary focus is and always will be the protection of public health.”
They apologised for the inconvenience caused.
Heavy rain
Due to heavy rain, the source water going into the plant was cloudy due to suspended particles. The old Leixlip plant was not able to cope with the cloudiness levels.
“Plant operators reacted quickly before alarms were activated and shut down the old plant to stop this water entering the network,” the spokesperson said.
There were no issues at the new plant. The old plant in Leixlip produces 20% of the overall daily water demand for the greater Dublin area.
A Status Yellow rainfall warning for Dublin, Meath, Wicklow, Kildare and Louth kicked in at 6pm today and will remain in place until 9pm tomorrow.
The Irish Water spokesperson said it is “not possible to say conclusively at this time what impact any particular weather warning may have on the water produced but we will be monitoring the situation closely”.
More information about the boil water notice can be read here.
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