MEDICAL TESTS carried out in Galway by the Health Service Executive (HSE) West show that none of 35 people who experienced high lead levels in their drinking water has been affected by lead toxicity.
HSE West director of public health Dr Diarmuid O’Donovan confirmed the clear readings last night, as an action programme was outlined by HSE West, Galway City Council and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
He also appealed for public co- operation in further water tests being carried out in Galway, and appealed to people not to visit the public analyst’s laboratory with water samples due to the volume of work there.
Labour councillor Colette Connolly said the public analyst’s laboratory had been “deluged with very worried people”.
The EPA has also confirmed that it has written to all local authorities instructing them to review the quality of their water supplies and to carry out lead surveys of their water distribution system to determine the extent of lead piping in use.
Some “99 per cent” of samples taken in 944 public water supplies in the State are “compliant” with the current lead standard of a maximum of 25 micrograms per litre, the EPA says.
However, four supplies – in Galway city; Ballintra, Co Donegal; Bruff, Co Limerick, and Mallow, Co Cork – have prompted issuing of public health notices, it said. The EPA’s new enforcement powers, requiring local authorities to inform them of excessive levels, date only to March 2007.
Minister for the Environment John Gormley expressed confidence yesterday in the EPA’s handling of the issue.
He told RTÉ radio that he would not be visiting Galway in the short term. “I don’t think the people of Galway want politicians to come down for photo opportunities, they want action,” he said.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said in Galway that he believed it was an “absolute scandal” that Mr Gormley had not “shown sufficient interest in a matter of considerable public anxiety and concern to be down here in Galway leading the charge to rectify this problem, and giving absolute guarantees to the people of the city that the water they are drinking is safe”.
A joint statement by the EPA, Galway City Council and HSE West after a day-long series of meetings in Galway yesterday outlined a three-part programme of work.
In the short term, work has begun to adjust the pH of water to reduce the interaction between the water and the lead pipes, the statement said. In the medium term, lasting six to nine months, experts have been employed by Galway City Council to “advise on international best practice to further reduce the interaction between the water and lead pipes, until the pipes can be replaced”.
The long-term element of the programme, lasting two to five years, would involve replacement of the lead pipe network.
Extensive water sampling had been initiated in the city, choosing a random sample in each area, to provide more information. The statement also said that the public health advice remained the same in relation to not drinking or boiling water in Old Mervue and flushing out the system before drinking in the other affected areas of Shantalla, the Claddagh and Bohermore.