Swimming ban placed on Sandymount over water quality

A temporary ban on swimming has been placed at Sandymount Strand after water quality there failed to meet the minimum standard for bathing.

Dublin City Council announced the temporary prohibition of bathing notice today following the analysis of a bathing water sample taken on Friday.

In a statement, the council said: “the laboratory test results of this sample indicate that the water quality at this location does not comply with the minimum standard set down for bathing waters.

“Accordingly Dublin City Council has erected notices at Sandymount Strand prohibiting swimming on a temporary basis.”

A further sample of bathing water was taken at the beach today and the results of that will be available on Wednesday at which stage a further update will be issued.

Very heavy rainfall on Friday caused an emergency sewage overflow facility in the local drainage network to discharge dilute sewage onto Sandymount Strand.

As a consequence, Dublin City Council issued a bathing water advisory notice recommending that people do not bathe at the location until it could be established that the water quality met the requirements of the bathing water regulations.

However, the placing today of a temporary prohibition of bathing notice at the beach effectively bans swimming at the location.

Swimming bans at Killiney and White Rock beaches due to poor water quality were lifted on Friday.

The bans had been put in place earlier last week but Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council announced bathing was safe again at the two beaches following updated sample results.