Clare County Council yesterday reassured householders in north Clare that their water supply was safe for consumption. The council's move follows a fish kill in Lickeen Lake - the main source of water supply to towns and villages in north Clare - resulting in the deaths of over 1,000 fish, mainly brown and rainbow trout. According to a spokesperson for the Shannon Regional Fisheries Board an algae bloom over a large area of the lake was an important factor in Tuesday's fish kill.
Reassuring the public yesterday, a council spokesman said: "We have a full treatment plant at the lake with an additional capacity to cope with situations like this."
He added: "Also we have granular activated carbon, which is an additional safeguard and which we are using, so that the position in regard to public health and drinking water is quite satisfactory."
Stating that the area was not an intensively farmed one, a spokesperson for the board said it was investigating the factors which led to the kill.
Commenting on the condition of the lake, a spokesperson for the Lickeen Trout Anglers' Society said the council had failed to prevent a continuing effluent discharge from the water treatment works at Lickeen.
He said: "We have been lobbying the council to take action on this issue for over six months, but without success."
However, a council spokesperson said: "This is a very small scheme which will be abandoned when the Lisdoonvarna water scheme comes into operation in the near future and it is very unlikely that the discharge was the cause of the fish mortalities."
A spokesperson for the board said it became aware of the discharge at the treatment works only yesterday.