River pollution bad for tourism

Pollution close to the cascades in Ennistymon is affecting the tourism product in the North Clare town, it has been claimed.

 

Clare County Council has acknowledged that there have been a number of complaints regarding the quality of water in the river in recent weeks but contend that the “overall quality of the Inagh River is of good status and our focus is to retain that”.

One recent visitor to the area, Barry Curtin from Cork, said he was very disappointed by the appearance of the river.
“I saw tourists looking at it one evening and people thought something had just spilled into it. I heard two Americans asking if it was overspill from a cheese factory,” he told The Clare Champion.
“There is so much effluent in the river that the whole river has a slick of effluent building up in an eddy in the corner. It is quite obvious it is animal effluent,” he claimed, adding that there was white foam on the surface that was slow to dissipate.

Joanne Clancy, sales and marketing at the well-known Falls Hotel, believes there has been a notable change in the water’s appearance in recent years.
“People are commenting on it,” she said.
“The colour has changed. I remember it as a child when we used to come down here for walks and the water was clear. Since I started working here, seven years ago, it has dis-improved. It seems to be darker, more often than not.”

“It is not affecting our business directly but it is affecting the appearance of the town and we would like to see something done about it,” Ms Clancy added.
“We can see otters in the water from the bar and the river has a lot of fish in it too so it is also in the interest of the environment that this problem is sorted out.”

The Environmental Protection Agency wrote to Clare County Council on August 30 calling on them to investigate a complaint made to them in relation to the water at the cascades and find the source of pollution, submit a report on this and detail proposed actions, with timeframes for the council to rectify the incident. This was due with the EPA no later than this Friday.

Seán Lenihan, senior executive engineer with the Environment and Water Services Section in Clare County Council, said there is some pollution in the river but that the council is monitoring the situation.
“The water quality is good. We are monitoring it. There are no issues of undue concern. In rural catchment areas, you would expect run-off of the type we have seen up there. We are happy that there isn’t one direct discharge,” he said.

Responding to complaints in relation to the presence of foam, Mr Lenihan noted that in the local authority’s follow-up inspections at the river, “the presence of foam was observed at a number of locations upstream of Ennistymon”.

He added that there was no apparent one point where pollutants were entering the river but rather a combination of diffuse sources throughout the river catchment.
“The level of foam on the surface appeared to increase the further downstream one went on the river and this would be consistent with the churning up and aeration of the water. The catchment of the Inagh/Cullenagh River is dominated by peat and gley soils. Significant land run-off of solids and nutrients and humic acid leaching would be expected and the heavy rainfall over the recent summer months would have resulted in above-normal run-off. This, combined with aeration and turbulence in the river, is the most likely source of the foaming. The fact that the foam appears to be more concentrated in front of the hotel is more than likely due to the turbulence of the areas around the falls followed by the quiescent conditions as the river deepens and widens out downstream of the falls.”

Senator Martin Conway, who is from Ennistymon, said he believes the cascades are “a vital part of the North Clare tourism amenity and product”. He said he was concerned that there were complaints about the water quality in the River Inagh.

“The cascades are a unique selling point for the town of Ennistymon and anything that would jeopardise them environmentally is something I would be concerned about and I will be raising it with Clare County Council and I would hope that corrective action would be taken as a matter of urgency. What worries me greatly about this is that it took a member of the public visiting to bring this mater to our attention,” Senator Conway commented.

While run-off from the land is the most likely source of pollution, according to Mr Lenihan, it is possible, given the age of some buildings in Ennistymon, that domestic sewage is entering the river.
“The council is aware that there may be historic discharges from some of the older properties in the town entering the river, either directly or via the storm sewers or culverts in the area. We will continue to investigate and monitor the situation there and are committed to ensuring that these types of discharges be discontinued.”

Mr Lenihan urged anyone who believes their property might not be correctly linked to the public sewer or may be connected to the storm sewer or culvert, to contact their local area office.