Rush south beach is one of the most beautiful on the Irish east coast.
Tucked away from busy roads, its long sandy shore is the perfect locale for a morning stroll and has long been popular for aquatic sports.
However, as the town began to expand during the boom days with the rest of Dublin, a murkier story began to develop beneath the water’s surface.
“The water is cloudy brown and then you can see a whirlpool of brown coming up.”
This is how Rush native and keen kitesurfer Kenny Carthy describes his many meetings with raw untreated sewage off Rush’s coast. “It’s such a gorgeous beach for people to use, so it’s just such a shame to see that level of water quality.”
The beach is one of 36 spots across Ireland where untreated sewage is pumped directly into Irish estuarine or coastal waters.
The issue has been a thorn in the side of locals for some time, says Charlie Monks, chairperson of the Rush Community Development Committee.
"Sewage is still going out from about 80 per cent of the town," says Monks, who has been fighting for change for the best part of a decade.
“When the town started to grow 10 to 15 years ago it should have been dealt with,” he adds. “When it’s not done right, you get a disaster like Rush.”
Test results
He says although the water quality around Rush is generally fine, when large amounts of sewage are
pumped out
, you can’t tell the damage until test results come in weeks later.
During this time the beach is essentially unusable, with intermittent closures hitting the south beach over the last few summers.
“For Rush, it’s quite devastating,” says councillor Barry Martin, who, together with Rush Action Group for the Environment, has been vocal on cleaning up the town’s “strongest asset”.
“If you have an open sewage pipe there is always a chance you will get bad results.”
Some recent progress has been made, with the start of work on a multimillion euro project to fully connect Rush with the Portrane treatment facility set to be announced at a ceremony next week.
While passionate about the project, Cllr Martin has no interest in going to “that sort of ceremony”, and would prefer to just get on with the work that “should have happened 20 years ago”.