County manager defends beach closures

“I would do the same again,” county manager Tom Coughlan said this week, talking about his handling of the closure of three popular Clare beaches for a time last weekend.

 

Clare County Council banned bathing at Lahinch, Kilkee and Spanish Point on Friday on the advice of the HSE.

Results of water samples taken at the bathing areas on Wednesday, July 18 showed elevated levels of bacteria in the water. The prohibition was lifted on Saturday afternoon after the preliminary results of further water tests carried out on Friday showed a dramatic improvement in water quality levels.
The prohibition of swimming at three of Clare’s best-known beaches at the start of a weekend during the height of the summer was roundly criticised.

Michael Vaughan, North Clare hotelier and President of the Irish Hotel’s Federation, stated the sewerage infrastructure in Lahinch could be responsible for the pollution.

The council flatly denies this and blames heavy rainfall and subsequent runoff from surrounding land for the contamination.

If it was the sewerage infrastructure “Why isn’t Lahinch always polluted then?” county manager Coughlan asked.

“Because you’ve the constant outfall from Liscannor, you’ve the constant outfall from Ennistymon and Lahinch, why aren’t they always polluted? Why did this incident just happen at this time? We haven’t had extreme rainfall like that for quite a long time.

“Last Tuesday night was extraordinary. But the logical conclusion is that there should be pollution in the bay on a constant basis if the sewerage treatment plants are the problem. We’ve never had this problem before, so that leads me to think that it’s something extraordinary that has caused it,” he continued.

An official council response to the closures stated that there were no “untreated overflows from the network during the period in which the water samples resulting in exceedances of the Blue Flag limits were taken at Lahinch beach”.

Mr Coughlan said he did not accept criticism for closing the beaches and opening them again within 24 hours.

“We got the result on Friday evening, which the HSE advised us should result in the closure of beaches. We don’t compromise on public health. We took the decision to close the beaches, which was not an easy decision to make on a Friday evening, this time of year. But at the same time, it was the right decision to make,” he stated.

“That decision was made. We got notifications out immediately. We got it in the media very, very quickly. We said at the time that we anticipated that the next result that we would get would be on Sunday. We knew that we would be getting a preliminary result on Saturday but we weren’t willing to act upon a preliminary result, not knowing what it was going to be.

“The preliminary result that we got on late Saturday morning identified that the level of e-coli and bacteria was so low that there was no possibility that the full result would show any evidence of pollution. There was such a disparity between the level that was taken on Wednesday after the heavy rainfall and the result of what was taken on Friday, there was such a disparity between them that there was no way the final result was going to show any biological problem. So we then took the decision in consultation with the HSE early Saturday afternoon that we were going to reopen the beaches and we did that as quickly as we could,” he explained.

Mr Coughlan said that if he found himself in the same position again this Friday, he would take the same steps.

“We would take the same decision, because public health is paramount and there’s no compromise. Would we do everything as we did it last weekend? I find it difficult to identify how we could have done things much better last weekend than we actually did it,” he asserted.

The county manager was critical of statements made to local and national media in relation to the closures and was adamant the council has nothing to hide in relation to the issue.

“The difficulty we had was that people were coming out with uninformed statements over the weekend. Even when the beaches had reopened, people were coming out with uninformed statements and we had to deal with those uninformed statements. Some were suggesting that the council were hiding something, that ‘you know, we need to get this out in the open’. There was nothing to hide. There was a biological problem in the water. We closed the beaches. The result on Saturday indicated that we would open the beaches and we opened the beaches. We had nothing to hide and for people to suggest we had something to hide and that we had to come out in the open, doesn’t help the situation,” he stressed.

Mr Coughlan was also critical that after the beaches opened “people were going on the national airwaves, referring to the fact that the beaches had been closed and looking for independent inquiries, despite the fact that we had closed the beaches in the interest of public health”.

“I would have preferred if people were saying ‘If you come to Clare and use our beaches, you can be assured that our beaches are safe and healthy. Because if there’s any risk at all to your health, the council has proven that they will close the beaches,’ he stated.