Galway city councillors have demanded a written report on drinking water contamination, following last week's emergence of E.coli in part of the public system.
City management is confident it will be able to lift the latest boil water alert early this week in consultation with the HSE West for some 15,000 residents in the Knocknacarra/Rahoon/Kingston areas. It has also denied that the latest contamination is linked to a sewage leak, and says it occurred during a planned diversion of the water supply as part of local authority drainage work.
Mayor of Galway Tom Costello (Lab) says he was "encouraged" by the attitude of city manager Joe McGrath to the issue, following an emergency meeting between councillors and local authority officials on Saturday.
However, councillors had not been entirely satisfied during a "very testing" three-hour meeting, he said, and had been promised a special session on water issues on September 24th.
This meeting would also deal with the cryptosporidium contamination, which resulted in a five-month boil water alert for 90,000 people in the city and county, he said.
"We want to make sure this won't happen again," Mr Costello said. "Confidence in Galway's water quality has taken a serious blow." Councillors have proposed that free water be provided to Knocknacarra residents, but the city manager has said this would be looked at if the new alert is not lifted today.
Independent Cllr Catherine Connolly said that many serious questions remain to be answered while PD Cllr Donal Lyons, who lives in Knocknacarra, also said that the initial report from director of services Ciarán Hayes on Saturday was "disappointing" as it didn't produce the information required.
"Local authority drainage works which are said to have caused this - and which, we were told, were supervised by city engineers - are going to be taking place for the best part of the year. There will be more planned diversions of the system. So how can Galway City Council satisfy HSE West that contamination won't re-occur?" Cllr Lyons said.
"Also, we were given no satisfactory reason for the time delay in alerting both HSE West and the public. We seem to have learned nothing from the cryptosporidium outbreak last March."
No illness has as yet been traced to the new contamination, and testing for E.coli has been carried out daily. Three clear tests are required, and two have shown clear so far, councillors were told on Saturday.
The Department of Environment and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have been notified and are monitoring the situation.
Meanwhile, concerns have been expressed in the Oughterard area about delays in upgrading the waste water system which are believed to have contributed to the cryptosporidium contamination of city supplies last March.
The existing plant in Oughterard was built in 1947 to service 250 homes, but the population has expanded significantly since.
The EPA is still assessing the situation in relation to cryptosporidium.
However, the agency has said that it does not have powers to prosecute in this new case of E.coli contamination if the local authority admits it was responsible.
