Council removes boil notice from Ennis drinking water supply

The partial boil notice on the Ennis water supply, which has been in place since May 2005, was lifted by local authorities on Wednesday following consultation with the Health Service Executive (HSE).
It had been envisaged that the notice was going to be removed once the new €9 million water treatment plant at Drumcliffe became operational last April.
This was delayed, however, as a result of unexpected problems with the commissioning process for the new treatment plant.
The drinking water alert, which was introduced following the detection of cryptosporidium in May 2005, affected over 30,000 customers in Ennis town and surrounding areas, including Clarecastle and environs, Crusheen, Barefield, Doora, Drumcliff and Spancilhill and group water schemes on the supply.
Clare County Council has confirmed that the HSE/Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) criteria for lifting the boil notice has been met. The criteria include water quality, plant commissioning, sustainability of process and epidemiological evidence.
Welcoming the decision, county manager, Tom Coughlan, said that Ennis Town Council and Clare County Council acknowledged the patience, co-operation and assistance of the general public during the period of the boil water notice and greatly regretted any inconvenience caused to householders and the business community.
Councillor Brian Meaney described the decision as the removal of a cloud hanging over Ennis following intensive work completed by the council’s engineering staff.
“We can now begin the task of rebuilding confidence in the Ennis water supply. We need to look at safeguarding the Drumcliffe springs and increasing the storage capacity for the supply. Sources like the Killone source need to be rehabilitated.”
“Following a number of false dawns, council engineers were not going to sign off a handover of the management of the water supply to EPS until it passed a number of intensive tests,” he said.
All tests on the water being produced at the new plant have indicated that the water is to the quality required by the Drinking Water Regulations of 2007.
EPS Ltd, Mallow, were awarded the design, build and operate contract for the new facility last year.
Exhaustive testing throughout 2009 confirmed that there was no presence of cryptosporidium in the treated water that enters the Ennis public water supply.
David Timlin, director of services, Clare County Council, said that no major operational or production issues occurred during the plant’s testing period in the past five months.
“The treatment works performed satisfactorily right through the severe weather conditions experienced recently and last summer. Site testing to date would indicate that there are no quality or quantity issues with the water produced,” he said.
Mr Timlin confirmed that the council has issued a takeover certificate to EPS Ltd.
“Full chemical parameter tests on the quality and quantity of water being produced at the plant have proven satisfactory, which is why the council worked through very extensive protocols with the HSE to remove the partial boil notice,” he said.