Five Irish beaches fail to meet EU bathing-water quality standards

FIVE beaches in Wicklow, Donegal, Dublin and Louth have failed to meet minimum standards in the EU's annual survey of bathing-water quality.

These represent 4 per cent of the 124 designated bathing places included in the survey, which was published yesterday in Brussels. Most Irish beaches achieve very high water-quality standards, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which oversees the survey here.

The beaches which failed to meet the minimum standards include Greystones and Silver Strand in Co Wicklow, Lady's Bay at Lough Swilly, Co Donegal, Loughshinny in Dublin's Fingal Council area, and Seapoint, Co Louth. Beaches are tested for bacterial contamination arising from sewage pollution and for chemical and oil pollution. Failure to meet standards in any area will cause a beach to fail the test overall, according to Mr Micheal Lehane of the EPA.

Testing of bathing places is mandatory under EU directives. Fortnightly sampling and testing from June to the end of August is carried out by the relevant local authority and results are sent to the EPA in Wexford. If a beach fails, the authority must take measures to bring the water quality back up to standard. It must also notify the public, Mr Lehane said.

The EPA wrote to the four authorities two weeks ago notifying them of the non-compliance with mandatory standards, and awaits a reason why standards were not met, Mr Lehane said.

Two quality measures are used under the directive, he said, mandatory and guide values. "They must meet the mandatory values. The guide values are environmental quality targets."

Almost all other beaches surveyed met these guide values, he said.

Non-compliance was slightly higher this year, he said, but there had been a change in the tests between 1995 and 1996, with the addition of three chemical tests. The directive also requires all local authorities to make test results available to the public.

An authority would have to force the closure of a public beach if standards could not be met, but this had never happened, Mr Lehane said.

The EU survey is unconnected to the voluntary Blue Flag beach scheme operated by An Taisce. Blue Flag designation is more demanding, with assessment of beach management and environmental issues.

Consultants are working to ascertain the cause of the pollution at Lady's Bay, according to Mr Eunan Kelly, of Donegal County Council's environment section.

The beach failed on unacceptable bacteria levels from sewage, he said. There is a sewage outflow near Buncrana, but the consultants don't know at this stage if that was the cause of it; it is too early to say".

The Loughshinny contamination is to be examined by council engineers, according to a spokesman in the Fingal Council's environmental services department. There is a sewage outflow nearby, but the cause is yet to be determined.