As Galway is hit by yet another water-quality crisis, authorities are facing hard questions from all sides, writes Lorna Siggins
THERE'S a butcher in Mervue in Galway who has all the latest jokes about the city's water - such as the one about it being the only town on the island with both leaded and unleaded fluid running through its taps.
But for many, this is no laughing matter, with the news this week of a new drinking water quality issue within 18 months of the last crisis has prompted angry calls for answers from Galway City Council.
Medical screening has been initiated for the residents of 12 houses in four areas of the city - Old Mervue, Bohermore, Shantalla and the Claddagh - where elevated levels of lead have been recorded in the water supply.
Old Mervue, with up to 5,000 residents, has been identified as the most vulnerable area, as it is the only locality drawing water from a lead distribution pipe. Some 320 houses in a predominantly elderly community are directly supplied by this extensive lead network, which runs through back gardens. Its householders have been advised not to drink, or to boil, water, and several public taps from an alternative supply have been installed by council engineers.
In the other three areas, where houses built before 1970 may still have lead plumbing, residents have been advised to run taps for extended periods to clear the system before taking a drink.
Labour councillor Colette Connolly is resident of one of the 12 identified houses, and one of three with very serious levels - at 160 micrograms per litre in her case. The current maximum level is 25 micrograms per litre, and is due to be reduced in all EU member states to 10 micrograms per litre by 2013.
She is upset, angry, and critical of the local authority's handling of the issue, its delay in informing the public, and its publication of what she believes is misleading and contradictory information.
Her sister, independent councillor Catherine Connolly, says that the local authority has responded to residents' queries in affected areas in a very "inhuman way". Last year, when the cryptosporidium parasite contaminated the drinking water supply for up to 90,000 people in Galway city and county, Catherine confirmed that she had contracted the associated gastrointestinal illness. She was very sick for weeks, and lost several stone.
The sad and sorry history of lead piping and its negative impact on health is as old as the Roman Empire - and was, experts say, a major contributory factor to that empire's collapse. The most detailed information came to light in the middle of the 19th century, when doctors and scientists began recording cases of serious illness and death traced to lead poisoning in rapidly developing urban areas, where lead distribution piping was being installed.
Pregnant women and young children were and are most vulnerable to the metal's impact, given lead's toxicity to the central and peripheral nervous systems. Yet, as author Werner Troesken notes in his book, The Great Lead Water Pipe Disaster, published two years ago, official intransigence was a common denominator in cities faced with the problem, such as New York, Boston, and Glasgow.
In New York, for example, serious steps were not taken until 1992, Troesken says. This was over a century after the New York Herald published an editorial calling for action. From the 1970s, however, greater awareness about lead piping's adverse impact had resulted in its replacement by copper and plastic piping in most urban areas in both Europe and north America.
In Galway's case, some 80 per cent of its housing stock was built after 1970, according to city manager Joe McGrath, who said this week that a "very rigorous and thorough" replacement of lead pipes was undertaken in certain areas of the city in 1999 when water services were upgraded. Lead pipes were replaced on an "ongoing basis", he said, carefully distinguishing between the local authority's responsibility and the responsibility of individual owners of properties built before 1970.
The question arises: is the issue specific to Galway or could there be trouble lurking in other parts of the country.
This week Mr McGrath said he did not think Galway is alone, referring to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) results. "You'll see that there are lead exceedences in various parts of the country at various times. We have a very comprehensive testing regime in the city. Because it's comprehensive, it's showing up difficulties and we have to deal with those."
Both the Department of the Environment and the EPA say they do not believe it is a national issue. However, there has been no concerted national programme to survey the extent of the issue. The EPA's drinking water quality report for 2006 highlights just 22 cases of lead exceedances around the state.
The 2004 EPA drinking water quality report highlighted a problem in Galway and noted that the "relatively large number of lead exceedances", at seven of 28 samples analysed, was due to "target sampling in locations that were likely to be problematic" due to the presence of lead pipework.
The current exceedances in Galway arose from random tests for lead carried out in April and July which rang alarm bells in the Health Service Executive West. It undertook a more concerted sampling regime during the month of August, selecting 20 houses in city areas and five in the suburb of Knocknacarra.
The results, showing 12 houses with a problem, were referred to the city council in early September, which in turn informed the EPA. A legally binding direction issued by the EPA this week indicates that it is not totally confident of Galway City Council's response.
A commitment by the local authority to minimise the interaction between the treated water supply and the old lead pipe network, including adjustment of the pH level of the water at the city's treatment plant, points to a potential contributory issue.
LAST YEAR, DURING THE cryptosporidium alert, alternative supplies were drawn from a Galway County Council water supply at Luimnagh near Tuam. There has been speculation that the lower pH level of the Luimnagh water made it more reactive to lead - and that exposure experienced by residents in affected areas is of a shorter term. "Luimnagh is likely to be a consideration, but it is unlikely to be the full extent of the problem," EPA programme manager Gerard O'Leary says. "We expect Galway City Council to take a number of measures, and pH correction on its own won't be enough. All local authorities also have to be aware that the maximum lead limit is going to be significantly lower from 2013."
What O'Leary does highlight is that the Galway situation shows that the EPA's expanded role is working. It was just a day after the EPA was given a new national enforcement role last March in relation to drinking-water quality that the cryptosporidium outbreak was confirmed in Galway city and county.
Instead of sitting on information gathered for reports, the local authority was obliged to act - as was the EPA.
An estimated 2,000 people became ill during that outbreak, and there were more than 240 confirmed medical cases of cryptosporidios - a small number of whom still have continuing associated health problems. However, a timeline agreed under EPA direction ensured that the local authority shut down two old water treatment plants at Terryland and Headford, and installed ultraviolet treatment in the new Terryland treatment plant.
THE NOTICE TO BOIL WATER WAS LIFTED on August 20th last year - although a month later there was an E.coli alert in Knocknacarra. Boil water notices still remain in parts of the county, including Kilcolgan and Roundstone, where a separate identification of cryptosporidium has been confirmed this year.
Galway City Council says it is now testing for 48 different parametric values in its four water zones in the city. Until the lead contamination issue, it had reason to be confident about the public drinking-water supply. However, the EPA believes that local authorities should be far more active in publishing information generally.
"This doesn't just apply to Galway," says O'Leary. "We believe local authorities should be publishing details on a monthly, if not weekly, basis on websites. If they are happy with their testing, why aren't they sharing the information?
LEAD AND YOUR HOME
The presence of lead in drinking waterdepends on pH, temperature, water hardness and standing time, which is why testing methods are critical, according to the EPA. Soft waterfrom upland areas is more prone to picking up lead from pipes used in construction up to 1970.
Homes built before 1970 but refurbished since may not have lead piping, but the British Drinking Water Inspectorate has published advice on how to check.
Unpainted lead pipestend to be dull grey, and soft, and if the surface is scraped gently it may reveal a shiny, silver-coloured metal beneath.
To check inside the home, open the kitchen cupboards or the cupboard under the stairs and locate the piping leading to the kitchen tap. Outside the home, open the flap of the stop valve outside the property and scrape the pipe surface with a knife. Copper piping is usually bright, hard and dull brown, while plastic piping, also safe, is grey, black or blue.
Plumbing inside the homeis the responsibility of the owner, while the part of the service pipe linking the water main in the street to the stop valve outside the property is the responsibility of the local authority. The link between the stop valve and the entrance to the property is the responsibility of the home owner.
Lead piping should be replaced. Short-term solutionsare running water to a sinkful in the morning or after an extended time where taps were not used.