Galway - Water Crisis comes to an end

[Brocolli]

Today the Boil water notice was lifted in Galway.

People can drink water directly from their taps again.

Also, the new Ultra Violet treatment plant is being unveiled in Terryland Water Works. Good news for Galway City. The City Council has done its job, albeit more slowly than many people would have liked.

Unfortunately the quality of the water in Lough Corrib is as bad as ever. There have been recent problems with the drinking water in Clonmel and Fingal.

What lessons can be learned from all this?

[Auditor #9]

Lessons...

Cure is a lot harder than prevention

[L'Chaim]

Maybe they can learn to penalize people who polute the rivers and lakes in the first place. The chemicals that farms and business use that are then dumped into rivers should be seen as a very serious crime. I remember Bev Flynn saying that the money she has to pay RTE would amount to the the total salary she will earn from now until she retires. Now that's a massive cost. And farmers and business who polute rivers and lakes should have massive cost penalities. Freeze bank accounts and put judgements on properties if need be, if someone is found guilty of polluting a river or lake. If someone thinks they could possibily lose everything, they'd think twice about emptying chemicals into fresh water

[meriwether]

Do we know for definite what polluted the water yet?

[Schuhart]

I’m not sure they want to know.

In a statement the HSE said that the source or sources of the outbreak may never be identified but that detailed investigations into its cause will continue.

In other words, ‘let us never speak of this unpleasantness again’.

[Brocolli]

Do we know for definite what polluted the water yet?

Due to the type of Crypto that was diagnosed in most cases, it is quite clear that Human Sewerage was the primary cause in Galway.

Tests outside the Oughterard Sewerage treatment plant showed over 50 times the acceptable level of crypto in the lake.

Sample results given to me for the last 3 years show that at least two thirds of the raw water going into the main water treatment plant for Galway City showed traces of Human Sewerage.

A number of towns around Lough Corrib still allow partially treated sewerage into the lake yet planning permission is still being granted for new developments. This is utterly unacceptable.

[Schuhart]

Due to the type of Crypto that was diagnosed in most cases, it is quite clear that Human Sewerage was the primary cause in Galway.

I'm being pedantic only because someone was able to pick me up on the same point. Sewerage means the pipes our doings travel in. Sewage is our doings themselves. So read human sewage throughout.

A number of towns around Lough Corrib still allow partially treated sewerage into the lake yet planning permission is still being granted for new developments. This is utterly unacceptable.

So is the HSE going to get away with saying they've no idea what possibly could be the source?

[the crimson chin]

Or has it?