Formal complaint made to utilities regulator over water quality in Cork city 

A Cork councillor has formally complained to the Commissioner for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) about the city’s discoloured water.

The complaint, which was lodged by Green Party councillor Oliver Moran, comes as several areas of the city’s northside, and parts of the southside, have suffered intermittently from discoloured water. In some cases the issue has persisted for months.

Independent

The CRU is the independent regulator of energy and water supply, but the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the State’s environment watchdog, has said it is also investigating water quality in the city.

Mr Moran told The Echo he had been contacted by people whose washing machines, showers, and laundry had been ruined by poor-quality water.

“It’s going on 18 months now and there’s just no end in sight, and it’s having really significant effects on people’s lives,” Mr Moran said.

Several parts of the city have been affected by persistent discolouring in the drinking supply since the summer of 2022, when the then Irish Water opened its €40m Lee Road water-treatment plant.

Chemicals

In October 2022, Irish Water said an adjustment of the chemicals it used in water preparation had caused rusty sediment to be stripped from the inside of several of the city’s cast-iron water mains, resulting in discoloured water.

Since 2022, the water utility company has received 95 reports from people in Cork city suffering from illnesses suspected of having been caused by water consumption, compared to just one such complaint in 2020 and two in 2021.

The now renamed Uisce Éireann has repeatedly advised consumers not to drink discoloured water, but has said the drinking water in Cork city is safe.

A public meeting is planned for midday on Saturday, outside Uisce Éireann’s Cork offices on Eglinton St.

“It’s not acceptable that people are still having to put up with brown and orange tap water, ruined laundry, and the cost of stocking up with bottled water,” Cork North Central Socialist TD Mick Barry told The Echo.

Uisce Éireann was asked for comment.