Mallow facing ‘hard’ times
AS the town of Mallow continues to expand an increasing amount of new build homes will have to be supplied with so called ‘ hard water’ that is rich in lime deposits.
The issue was raised at this week’s November meeting of Cork County Council’s northern area committee by Cllr Gearoid Murphy (FF), who asked if there was anything the authority could do to address the amount of lime in the water supply, especially to houses on the northern side of the town.
“It is a real nuisance for residents, in particular in the affect it has on appliances such as washing machines and kettles,” said Cllr Murphy.
Senior council engineer Pat Walsh explained that many of the houses on the northern side of the town were supplied by the Balyviniter water scheme, which comes from a limestone source. He said the water supply to the south side of the town comes directly from the River Clyda which has a significantly lower lime content as it comes through sandstone.
However, Mr Walsh said that when the river is running low or when works are being undertaken at the Mallow treatment plant the southside is supplied through the ‘ hard water’ scheme from Box Cross.
“For example, during the summer levels in the Clyda were low so a larger percentage of the town would have been on the hard water Box Cross supply,” said Mr Walsh.
He warned that the projected population growth of Mallow was likely to put increasing pressure on the Clyda River supply, which was already reaching capacity, meaning that as the town expands there will be a greater reliance on the Box Cross hard water supply.
In light of this, Cllr Murphy asked if there was any way of reducing the amount of lime in the water from the Box Cross supply.
“Unfortunately not. Lime is a naturally occurring characteristic of the supply. In fact, more than 80% of the water supply across north Cork is hard water,” said Mr Walsh.
Asked by Cllr Murphy if there were any grants available to residents through the government or local authorities to install filtration systems in hard water areas, Mr Walsh said there were not.