Rowatboilingpoint

August 2002

Boiling notices for water in the Tinahely, Carnew and Shillelagh areas may have been lifted, but residents’ tempers have not cooled.

They have reached boiling point over the way they claim they were treated by the council. They believe they are being fobbed off by Wicklow County Council over the source of the pollution and claim that many residents were not properly informed that the water was unsafe to drink.

However, the council has confirmed their initial theory that the pollution was the result of an agricultural incident.

The water was restored to up to 3,000 people in the rural villages in South Wicklow who were left without their normal water supply for over a week when the Derry River, feeding the Coolruss treatment plant and storage tanks was found to be polluted.

Tinahely resident, Dick Barton, has complained that many people were not issued with the boiling notices until the water had begin to smell.

‘Many people were drinking the water for two days before it began to smell badly. to make matters worse they have never told us what it was,’ he says.

He maintains that the residents should have been informed of the pollution on August 21, when the water was first contaminated. However, he did not receive a boiling notice until the following Thursday at 5 p.m.

‘ The council says that the rain washed slurry into the river but there was no fish kill and no visible problem with the vegetation in the river. Nobody even reported seeing cloudy water. Do why is this anonymous farmer getting the blame?’ Mr Barton asks. Director of Services with Wicklow County Council, Michael Nicholson confirmed that the council had identified the source of the water contamination which affected the South Wicklow area last week.