WATER QUALITY AT the majority of Ireland’s bathing waters is at a high standard and has improved year-on-year according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Bathing Water Quality report for 2022.
79% of 148 bathing sites surveyed have ‘Excellent’ water quality while 97% meet the minimum standard.
In particular, the EPA highlighted two beaches that have improved from Poor to Excellent quality over recent years: Portrane, the Brook Beach in Dublin, and Trá na bhForbacha, Na Forbacha in Galway.
However, the number of beaches with poor bathing water quality has increased from two in 2021, to three, with one senior EPA official telling The Journal that the country’s wastewater infrastructure “isn’t up to the standard” needed.
Raw sewage, animal faeces and contaminated surface streams were found to be a serious issue at some of these beaches in the EPA’s report.
Commenting on the overall findings, Dr Eimear Cotter, director of the Office of Evidence and Assessment, said:
“The ongoing improvement in our bathing waters is very welcome and shows that good management of our bathing areas can give a high level of health protection for swimmers and other water users.”
“Year-round swimming continues to be popular and the EPA looks forward to the outcome of the work, led by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, which is investigating how to protect bathers’ health year-round.”
“Unfortunately, there were no new bathing waters identified in 2022. The EPA urges local authorities to designate more official bathing sites to protect swimmers’ health, which includes designating the large number of beaches and popular swimming spots
that they monitor but which haven’t been formally identified as bathing waters.”
The three beaches found to be of poor water quality will have a swimming restriction for the 2023 season.
Balbriggan (Front Strand Beach), Lady’s Bay, Buncrana and Trá na mBan, An Spidéal are suffering from issues including wastewater discharges, run-off from urban and agricultural lands as well as dog and other animal fouling playing a part.
One bathing water, Aillebrack/Silverhill Beach, Co Galway was identified in 2021 and will be classified after the 2023 season when the required number of samples for the assessment will have been taken.
At some beaches, heavy rainfall leads to wastewater overflows or run-off from urban and agricultural lands which leads to a temporary deterioration in bathing water quality.
Mary Gurrie, who is a programme manager in the EPA’s Office of Evidence and Assessment, said investment in the country’s wastewater treatment network is underway but could take some time to complete.
This will allow compliance with water quality legislation and protect public health.
“Our infrastructure isn’t up to the standard we need but there’s a huge investment programme underway to bring the treatment plants and the network up to speed,” she told The Journal.
“We have a priority action list which shows these are the ones need attention from an environmental point of view, where raw sewage needs to be addressed, where we have to make compliance with the wastewater directive.”
The most likely reported causes behind incidents reported to the EPA last year were urban waste water (38%) and a proliferation of bacteria called macro-algae (14%).
A roughly equal portion of incidents (12%) were also attributed to runoff from farms, misconnections from urban areas and contamination by animals and birds.
Local authorities put up 186 ‘Prior Warning’ notices at beaches in 2022, to warn swimmers that short-term pollution (lasting no more than a few days) may occur due to heavy rainfall.
Further information on bathing water and updates on monitoring results during the bathing water season (1 June to 15 September) is available at www.beaches.ie.
Additional reporting by Eoghan Dalton
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