This article is from page 1 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 1 JPG
through the Freedom of Information Act show that the Environmental
Protection Agency warned the coun- cil in January that the water supply was at risk of another outbreak of cryptosporidium.
Council officials did not make the public aware of the EPA concerns and a month later, an outbreak of cryptosporidium resulted in two children being hospitalised.
The documentation shows that de- spite a budget of €3 million for a
temporary water treatment plant, 25 to 30 per cent of the water go- ing through the plant was not being treated for cryptosporidium.
This was also kept secret and the EPA audit stated that when raw water conditions are poor, there is in effect no treatment barrier to the parasite in the Ennis public water supply.
“This places the supply at risk of another outbreak of cryptosporid-
tum’, the EPA concluded.
Clir Meaney said, “I don’t know if we can trust the officials anymore. This is appalling, people who were elected to represent the people are being kept in the dark, misinformed, told that the filtration plant was Oya ena