FOUR IRISH beaches failed EU hygiene standards for the 2007 swimming season, Europe’s latest water quality report says.
Balbriggan in Co Dublin, Na Forbacha and Clifden in Co Galway, and the main beach in Youghal, Co Cork, were not safe for swimmers, the European Commission’s annual water bathing report points out.
The report measures the water quality of about 22,000 swimming spots on Europe’s coasts, rivers and lakes.
While only four Irish beaches failed the EU’s mandatory safety standards, almost one in five of swimming beaches failed the more stringent “guide” water quality levels.
Ireland’s compliance with guide levels actually worsened by about 10 per cent during 2007, the report noted.
“Overall, the compliance with the more stringent guide values fluctuated between 75 and 92 per cent, which is also a good result,” said the report.
The guide levels will become mandatory by 2015.
The four failed beaches were the main black spots on an otherwise positive report. Overall, Ireland’s compliance with water quality levels is “excellent”, say the report’s authors.
The 131 coastal and inland bathing areas were tested throughout the 3½-month swimming season, running from mid-May to August 31st.
Ireland’s compliance rate of 97 per cent is better than the European average of 95 per cent, and well ahead of nations such as Italy, where 300 coastal bathing spots and 258 inland sites were closed throughout the season. The EU and the Italian government are spending hundreds of millions of euro upgrading Italy’s sewage treatment plants.
The EU standards measure such elements as salmonella, organic coliform bacteria normally found in faeces, and toxic acids. The colour of the water, oil residue and foam from detergents are also measured.
Bathing water standards have improved dramatically since the first EU water quality legislation was introduced in 1975.