Bathers warned off Lough Derg's toxic bloom

People continued to bathe in Lough Derg yesterday, despite the fact that stretches of the lake's Co Tipperary shoreline have been declared unfit for swimmers due to an algal bloom.

Among the bathers was this reporter, who happened to be in the area when the Irish Times newsdesk was searching for a volunteer to test whether the bloom was poisonous.

Water quality in the lake has been an issue since 1993 when a report by the Environmental Research Unit raised questions about the level of phosphates in the lake.

Last year a woman took an action against Tipperary North Riding County Council when her dog died after eating some algal bloom on the lake's shore near Garrykennedy.

A personal survey of the lake yesterday revealed, however, that while signs have been erected at the popular Terryglass and Dromineer bathing places, warning that the water is unfit for swimming, the northern and western shores in Co Galway carry no such warning.

"This water is constantly monitored," said Mr Liam Callaghan, a lifeguard on duty at the Portumna, Co Galway, bathing area. He had been swimming "for about an hour, when it was quiet in the morning".

As we spoke, groups of children frolicked about with canoes in the water and a couple of healthy-looking dogs swam past.

On the western shore at Castle Harbour there was some evidence of green moss-like algae in the water. A local woman, Mrs Peg O'Shea, who was watching her spaniel, Tara, swim, said she had seen such algae there all her life. She had not, however, heard the story about the dead dog. Upon hearing it, she regarded her pet somewhat anxiously.

The Government has announced a £3 billion package to improve the State's waste-water systems, and a major scheme is under way at Portumna. All along the river similar schemes are attempting to deal with the phosphates which drain into the river from washing machines and sewers. But there is considerable concern that agricultural fertilisers which contain phosphates may also be polluting the lake.

Mr Paddy Mackey, secretary of the Save Our Lough Derg (SOLD) group, said phosphates in washing powders would be reduced by 95 per cent by 2002 and this should help improve the safety of the lake. He has called for by-laws on the use of agricultural phosphates to be strictly implemented.

Yesterday, however, as the daily contest for space in this newspaper got under way in Dublin, your reporter slipped thankfully into the wide, warm lake - on the clean side. It was wonderful.