This article is from page 35 of the 2007-06-19 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 35 JPG
RESIDENTS in Ennistymon have claimed that the water quality in the area is still bad despite extensive work being carried out on local pipes, replacing and upgrading them.
Margaret and Victor Mulcahy, own- ers of The Green Briar guest house on the road to Lahinch, said that the problem of what appears to be rust in the water supply has been going on for at least a decade.
“Work has been done on the pip- ing system locally and granted, the problem is not as bad as it was but I still don’t trust the water. For the last few weeks there has been an awful
chemical or disinfectant-type smell from the water that even filtering it overnight would not get rid of.
“There are also little brown blobs in it. If you put it in a glass, mate- rial settles at the bottom,’ said Ms WY TUN er Vas
She said that extra work and ex- penses were being created for her business as well as causing incon- venience to guests.
“If I put in a white wash of sheets or towels, they come out with little brown marks all over them. When we replaced napkins lately they were Amo tom ee) Celtbe
“Tiles and baths are stained so that is extra cleaning. The first thing
guests see when they come in is a no- tice about the water.”
She added that they have been told that the water is safe to drink but would still have misgivings and buy bottled water.
She said that her neighbours, par- ticularly next door, were having the same problem.
Councillor Martin Conway (FG) added that he had also been contact- ed by a local resident in relation to discoloured water that she had col- lected a sample of.
“Sewerage systems in Clare should have been upgraded years ago. There has been a huge amount of develop- ment but not in tandem with infra-
structure. I don’t blame local authori- ties but hopefully our four TDs will work to rectify the situation.”
Engineer for Ennistymon, Caimin Dillon, said that old cast iron pip- ing had recently been replaced and a new system was operating. He added that there had not been complaints recently and a scouring of the line had been done last Thursday and had shown up clear.
“As for the strong smell, that is probably chlorine and we will look into it. There could be a problem with sediment in internal tanks or something between the main pipes and the building. There should not be sediment in the line.”