This article is from page 9 of the 2008-05-13 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 9 JPG
THE Ennis Town Engineer admitted yesterday that is it very difficult to emerge “squeaky clean” when decid- ing what level of information to re- lease to the public.
Tom Tiernan was commenting after it emerged that the Environmental Protection Agency warned the coun- cil that there was a risk of an out- break of cryptosporidium a month before two children went down sick 20M eLom DD BS Lotss
The council decided not to make the EPA’s concerns public and Mr Tiernan said the council was liaising with the Health Service Executive and the EPA on a continuing basis and “wouldn’t have time to do any- thing else if we were telling the pub- lic about all our dealings with these bodies”.
He said that a balance had to be struck between advising the public of any elevated risk and causing panic amongst the population.
“There are enough people do- ing that and we try our best to keep councillors and the general public informed as best we can.
“When there is a change to the sta- tus quo or a deterioration in the water supply, we would notify the public in consultation with the HSE”.
GET rrebeitcameer Imm selomMN sc IKo mm BKO)DOMENOLe Ennis public water supply was “very safe to drink’, he said that with the
treatment capacity of the plant in- creased by 25 per cent, there had been significant improvement in the water quality but not on the scale that a permanent plant would provide.
He pointed out prior to June 2006 when the temporary treatment plant became operational, there was no fil- tration of the water for cryptosporid- ium.
“Since then, there has been a sub- stantial improvement in the qual- ity and reliability of the water and a significant reduction in the risk of cryptosporidium.”’
“We are working towards compli- ance and we are taking this very se- riously. I would expect the council would be compliant over the next number of days as we are tweaking and optimising the additional capac- LANs
Mr Tiernan said that the council had to increase the number of filters in the plant for eight to ten in March due to extra demand on the system over the past 12 months and had faced technical issues in trying to maximise the treatment of the water for cryptosporidium.
“A number of the filtration units required servicing as the demands placed on the system over the winter took its toll and the issue is further complicated by the construction of the permanent plant because there are a number of parts that are inter- linked,” he said.