This article is from page 3 of the 2009-12-08 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 3 JPG
RESIDENTS in Ennis are looking forward to a Christmas free of boil- ing water, as Clare County Council hopes to remove the partial boil no- tice within the next few weeks.
Director of Services David Timlin said, “It will take a number of weeks to withdraw that notice, but hope- fully it will be done by Christmas.”
He was speaking after the council signed off on the certificate to allow a private company to operate the plant.
The partial boil notice has been in place for residents who are immuno- compromised, children under five and visitors since June 2005, when high levels of cryptosporidium were discovered in the water.
An interim water system was put in place at a cost of €3 million, un- til the new €9 million system was oyna eyo Keree
Mr Timlin, who over sees all the water services in the county said the testing for cryptosporidium for this year has been “off the scale”.
“It has been costing us a lot of
money, around €50,000 or more in extra testing costs.”
He said the council hope to reduce the number of tests in the future but the number taken will still be more than statutorily required.
The council will now enter into discussions with the HSE in a bid to have the partial boil notice re- moved.
To date the water has passed all the quality tests according to Mr Timlin, adding the reassurance that he drinks the water himself.
Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) said, “I
have no doubt that when the HSE go through the steps the boil notice will be removed.”
He said the filter worked well un- der extreme circumstances in the past number of weeks.
Not all councillors were as con- fident however. Clr Johnny Flynn (FG) said he was sceptical about the treatment plant and worried about the amount of pre-treatment.
Meanwhile Clare’s local authori- ty’s problems with water supply for the county are far from over howev- er, as the head of the water division
has described as urgent the need to replace the number of mains in the county.
‘There are a lot of mains in Ennis that are beyond repair. It is vital the Government give the go ahead to re- place these.”
The council, which once recorded a 50 per cent water leakage in the county has decreased this to 36 per one
Not all of the county has been ex- amined yet by the council who hope to get water wastage down to 25 per one