Nobody charged with polluting a river or stream in the greater Dublin area will any longer be able to challenge the scientific analysis of water samples tested at the Corporation's Central Laboratory, according to the chief city engineer.
Mr Jim Fenwick, speaking at a ceremony yesterday to mark the granting of official certification to the laboratory and also his last day at work prior to retirement, stressed that its scientists would now be able to "stand up in court without fear of contradiction".
The laboratory conducts 200,000 tests a year - an average of between 700 and 1,000 per day - mainly to assure the quality of drinking water in the greater Dublin area, which covers the city, the three local authority areas in Co Dublin as well as Kildare and Wicklow.
Mr Fenwick described the central laboratory as "the unsung hero of the environmental protection". It carried out work which was "vital to the whole community" because it involved "guarding the health of the people of Dublin city and the surrounding area", he said.
Apart from routine tests of drinking water quality, the laboratory also performs a central role in monitoring some 1,800 industrial concerns, to ensure they are complying with the terms of their licences to discharge "trade effluent" into the sewerage system. "We keep them on the straight and narrow," Mr Fenwick said, adding that the certification of the central laboratory by the Irish Laboratory Accreditation Board (ILAB) was "extremely important" in this regard, and "no mean achievement" by the staff.
The award was made by ILAB after a review of the analytical programmes in the laboratory by an independent team of assessors, who were satisfied its work "conforms to the highest standards of excellence", based on standard international criteria. Mr Fenwick paid tribute to the "painstaking work" of Dr Con Hegarty, the laboratory's senior scientific officer, and his two assistants, Dr Denis Morrissey and Mr Colm Lally, as well as Ms Imelda Averill, who runs the environmental section of the laboratory.
The laboratory, which was established in 1984, employs 14 chemists, a microbiologist, 12 technicians and five support staff. Its analytical equipment includes a range of sophisticated modern instruments, such as equipment for organic and metal testing.
It provides an integrated scientific service to the Dublin local authorities, supported by five satellite laboratories - one each at the water works in Ballyboden, Leixlip, Ballymore Eustace and Roundwood and the fifth at the main sewage treatment plant in Ringsend. Since January 1991, it has analysed 185,000 samples, involving more than 1.2 million individual tests - all carried out manually, with no aid from robotic systems. Last year, it cost £1 million to conduct 199,402 tests, which works out at £5 per test.
All the information gathered since 1991 is now held on a computerised database, Dr Hegarty said, but ultimately information on drinking water quality would be publicly accessible via the Internet. Referring to his retirement, Mr Fenwick said yesterday was a "bitter-sweet day" for him. But he said that all 16 divisions in his department had "performed in a manner which could not be faulted" and had worked with great dedication to "keep the city running".