Sewage discharged into Kenmare Bay

WARNING TO STAY OUT OF WATER IN ‘CONTAMINATED’ KENMARE BAY

KERRY County Council has blamed a ‘technical problem’ at the Kenmare Wastewater Treatment plant last week, for the discharge of untreated sewage into Kenmare Bay which led to contaminated water warnings.

Swimmers and other water users were surprised to see signs erected at Kenmare and Templenoe piers last week warning swimmers about contaminated waters, though a number of swimmers still entered the water, unsure of why the signs were erected or what was in the water. Indeed, the pleasant weather conditions on Saturday meant that there was a higher volume of swimmers than normal.

Tankers were deployed to the Kenmare area to remove the effluent from the Kenmare Wastewater Treatment Plant and transport it to the Killarney plant for treatment following the technical fault which occurred last Thursday.

But some of the effluent had been discharged from the plant to the Finnihy River and into Kenmare Bay.

In a statement this week Kerry County Council said that “every effort” made to limit the discharge and to get the treatment plant up and running again as quickly as possible.

Since the incident, Kerry County Council has been monitoring the water to determine the impact of the leakage. A number of samples have been taken in the intervening days and water quality has much improved, a spokesperson said.

Once the water quality has returned to normal levels, which is expected to be today ( Wednesday, August 28) or in the coming days, members of the public can return to the water.

“The EPA has been notified as per procedures in this type of incident and the signage for waters users was put in place as a precaution to advise members of the public of the water quality issue in Kenmare Bay,” the spokesperson added.