POTENTIAL CONTAMINATION due to lead piping in Galway was identified by the Environmental Protection Agency four years ago.
The agency highlighted seven “exceedances” in lead levels in Galway in its 2004 report on drinking water quality. The seven readings were among 28 random samples analysed, and were attributed to “target sampling in locations that were likely to be problematic” due to the presence of lead pipework, the agency noted.
However, the agency was only given enforcement powers in relation to drinking water quality just over a year ago, in March 2007, and was not in a position to direct the local authority to take action on the issue in 2004.
Galway City Council confirmed this week that Old Mervue is the only area of the city were lead is present in distribution pipework, and residents have been advised not to drink or to boil their water.
Elevated levels recorded in three other city areas may be due to lead in domestic plumbing and residents have been advised to “flush” their systems before drinking water. Residents of 12 houses showing the high levels in the four city areas of Old Mervue, Bohermore, Shantalla and the Claddagh have been offered medical testing by the Health Service Executive (HSE) West in Merlin Park Hospital late this week.
The agency says lead contamination, detected by HSE West in tests in August, is “complex”.
The HSE West tests were prompted by high lead levels recorded in one house in the city on July 30th last – the second of two lead “exceedances” recorded in Galway city this year. The agency’s programme manager Gerard O’Leary said the difficulty cannot be attributed solely to the chemical composition of water from a county reservoir.
He was responding to claims that the problem may be traced back to last year’s contamination by cryptosporidium, and the subsequent decision to draw supplementary water for the city from Luimnagh in the north of the county.
The ph level of water in Luimnagh is said to be lower than that from the Corrib system, and could have been more acidic. It could be more reactive to lead in the water distribution network and internal plumbing, according to Fine Gael councillor Brian Walsh.
Mr O’Leary said that Luimnagh was “likely to be a consideration”, but was “unlikely to be the full extent of the problem”. “We expect Galway City Council to take a number of measures, and ph correction on its own won’t be enough. All local authorities also have to be aware that the maximum lead limit is going to be significantly lower from 2013,” he said. The current maximum level is 25 micrograms per litre, and this is to be reduced to 10 micrograms in all EU member states by 2013.
Three of the 12 houses identified in the tests had levels over 100 micrograms and Labour councillor Colette Connolly, who lives in Shantalla, was told her reading was 160 micrograms per litre.
Mayor of Galway Cllr Pádraig Conneely (FG) called last night on Minister for the Environment John Gormley to appoint a senior official from his department to manage water supplies in the city.
This echoed a call by Labour president and Galway West TD Michael D Higgins for a separate authority to manage water quality.
Speaking before last night’s special briefing for councillors, the mayor said the people no longer had confidence in the local authority management of the water crisis in Galway.
