Baywatch - how clean is YOUR local beach?
Where to go – and where to avoid – when swimming this summer
THE summer is here and those in search of Ireland’s best beaches should travel to counties Clare, Kerry and Louth, according to a review of data from the Environmental Protection Agency.
These counties have received top marks in the EPA’s last three annual reports on the quality of bathing water in Ireland.
All of these counties’ beaches have been graded as being of an ‘excellent’ standard for the three years since stringent water quality tests were implemented under an EU directive in 2014.
Each year, the EPA publishes a report on the quality of bathing water in Irish beaches. Each beach is ranked either ‘poor’, ‘sufficient’, ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ over the past three years.
Based on these reports, the MoS has ranked each beach in each county – from zero, for those
Six beaches in Dublin and Galway are ‘poor’
ranked ‘poor’, to four, for those ranked ‘excellent’ – for 2014, 2015 and 2016.
We have then taken an average for the three years, meaning nine is the top mark achievable.
These figures show Mayo, Donegal and Sligo’s beaches are also of a very high standard, as each received an average rating of 8.8, 8.3 and 8.2 respectively, while the three areas that fared the worst are Galway City, Fingal and Dublin City Council which scored 5.5, 5.2 and 3.3 respectively.
Dublin’s Sandymount and Dollymount beaches received a rating of 4 and 5 respectively, while the Merrion Strand got a rating of just 1 after two years of being ranked ‘poor’.
Leitrim also scored an impressive average rating of 9. However, this grade is influenced by the fact it only has one area of bathing water which has been identified to the EU for water testing, Keeldra Lough, a freshwater inland lake. EPA senior scientist and author of the 2016 report, Peter Webster, said the low grades achieved by Dublin City Council’s beaches were due to a combination of heavy rainfall and human and animal bacteria entering the water. The EPA looked at 140 bathing waters for its report and found almost three-quarters of these swimming spots received an ‘excellent’ score. But six beaches in Galway and Dublin received a ‘poor’ status. These bathing waters were Ballyloughane, Clifden and Trá na bhForbacha in Co. Galway; and Merrion Strand, Loughshinny and Portrane in Co. Dublin.
The report says these waters are prone to episodic pollution. High bacteria levels, wastewater pollution, sewage, faeces and the presence of E.coli are among the reasons as to why these beaches failed to meet the EPA’s minimum standards.
These beaches will be required to put either an ‘advice against bathing’ or ‘bathing prohibition’ restriction in place for 2017.