Rush fails to meet EU water standards

A local beach has failed to meet mandatory water quality standards, it has emerged this week.
This is according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) who said that of 136 bathing areas across Ireland; just four have failed to meet the standards set by the EU, including that of Rush South Beach in Fingal.
The EPA launched their report on The Quality of Bathing Water in Ireland – An Overview for the Year 2012 last week, which listed Fingal’s beaches as either having sufficient, good or insufficient quality status.
The EPA said last summer’s wet weather is to blame as low levels of pollution were caused by wastewater storm overflows. They said the bathing water season coincided with the wettest summer for over 50 years with many areas recording two to three times their expected summer rainfall.
The news was greeted with disappointment by local Cllr Darragh Butler (FF) who described it as being more bad news for the local town of Rush.
“It is very disappointing that Rush South Beach failed to achieve sufficient water quality status,” he said.
“This continues the bad news for Rush with the loss of the Garda station and bank, reduced library hours and now this.  More will need to be done by Fingal County Council to rectify this as soon as possible.
“In addition, we need to try and improve the areas that received ‘sufficient’ water quality status up to ‘good’ or higher,” he added.
The findings of the EPA showed that despite the bad weather, the quality of Ireland’s bathing waters remained high overall, with over 97% of identified bathing areas meeting the EU mandatory standards.
Balbriggan beach, Loughshinny and Skerries South Beach were three beaches in Dublin North to receive “sufficient” water quality status in the report, while Balcarrick in Donabate, Malahide Beach, Velvet Strand at Portmarnock, Portrane and Burrow Beach in Sutton received “good” water status.
Fingal County Council also designated one new coastal bathing area – Claremont Beach in Howth – for the 2012 bathing season, raising the total number of identified bathing areas to 136 in the report.