EPA finds 22 supply systems fail safety tests
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THE Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) warned last year that "improvements" were needed in testing public water supplies for lead contamination.
A total of 22 supplies were found to have exceeded national limits on lead contamination, with just two being small private supplies serving a group of houses. The remaining 20 were public water supplies serving wider catchment areas.
The EPA's 'Provision and Quality of Drinking Water in Ireland 2006-2007' report states that 22 supplies exceeded lead limits during 2006, up from 17 in 2005.
While these supplies did not meet the current limits which allow 25 milligrams of lead per litre of water, twice that number will struggle to reach the new limit of 10mg per litre being introduced in 2013.
The EPA said 46 public supplies were non-compliant with the 2013 limit, and local authorities will have to examine how the standards can be achieved.
It also recommended that all local authorities should carry out a lead survey to determine the extent of lead piping in the distribution network and in the population served.
It found that lead was detected in one sample in the Monaghan Glaslough supply, the second year in a row this had occurred.
According to the World Health Organisation, lead is a general toxicant that accumulates in bone. Infants, children up to six years of age and pregnant women are the most susceptible to its health effects and it is toxic to both the central and peripheral nervous system.
Measures to prevent contamination could include phosphate dosing -- or lining lead pipes -- to reduce risk.
Although this will assist, the EPA says the only way of ensuring full compliance is to remove and replace all lead pipes from the water distribution network.
The EPA also said it had developed an initial list of 339 public water supplies (36pc of the total public supplies) that needed detailed profiling which would determine if the supply needed to be upgraded,
The EPA also found that E coli was detected in 77 (8.3pc) of public water supplies at least once during 2006, an "unacceptable" situation as it indicated the water was contaminated with human or animal waste.
- Paul Melia
