Kilkee loses Blue Flag status for a week

KILKEE lost its coveted Blue Flag status for a week in August. The removal of the Blue Flag, which is an international environmental award made to beaches and marinas that demonstrate good environmental standards and good sanitary and safety facilities, followed a test which was carried out on August 9 by An Taisce. Blue Flag status was subsequently restored a week later.

The matter was raised at Monday’s meeting of Kilkee Town Council when Fine Gael councillor Paddy Collins blamed sewerage issues for the removal of the flag.
“It was from s***e that we lost the Blue Flag for a week,” Councillor Collins told Monday’s meeting.
However, Kilkee town clerk John Corry refuted the suggestion that sewerage problems were behind the removal of the Blue Flag. He said Mary Burke, senior executive chemist with Clare County Council, had cited “high and low tides” as the reasons why the beach failed the An Taisce test.
In an email to Kilkee town manager, Nora Kaye, Ms Burke said tidal issues were behind the temporary loss of the Blue Flag.
“Removal of the flag was due to high bacterial counts on one monitoring date and appears to have been linked to a very high and correspondingly very low tide,” Ms Burke explained.
She expressed confidence that Kilkee’s Blue Flag status for 2011 would not be adversely affected.
“As I understand, we have adequate results to provide for the level of percentage compliance required for the Blue Flag application next year,” she stated.
Although Kilkee has been awarded Blue Flag status every year since 1999, the town lost its Blue Flag status in 1996 and 1997.
Last August, Clare County Council said that raw sewage is still being pumped into the Atlantic Ocean in Kilkee, five years after it was due to be brought into compliance with the EU wastewater directive.
The outfall, located near the cliffs at Intrinsic Bay, discharges a mix of foul and surface water from Kilkee, which has no sewage treatment system.
A preliminary report for Kilkee’s sewage system, incorporating a network upgrade and secondary treatment, was submitted to the Department of the Environment in June 2005 but has yet to receive final approval.