Call for weekly testing of water at beach in West Cork

Two ‘Do Not Swim’ notices at the popular Warren beach in West Cork during the summer prompted a Social Democrats councillor to call for weekly testing of the waters at beaches where a red flag has been raised at least twice during the bathing season.

Isobel Towse, the Skibbereen-based councillor, raised the issue during Cork County Council’s full meeting on Tuesday and suggested that a provision calling for weekly testing after any bathing warning would be added to the current policy which calls for at least five tests at every beach manned by Cork County Council lifeguards during the summer.

She added that the waters in busy areas should be tested fortnightly all year around in areas where there had been two warnings during the summer.

“The reason for weekly is, that in the summer, there were two separate periods, one of three weeks and one of 19 days, where the Warren beach wasn’t tested — and this was in the midst of two bathing water notices due to raised E-coli levels and hundreds of children in the water every single day learning water safety from all over the county — many complaining of upset stomachs.”

Ms Towse said the council had tested the bathing water as many times as they had needed to, “the minimum number”.

“The problem is I think these tests were all used up around the time of bathing water notices,” she said.

“It can be tested three days in a row to make sure that a pollution event has passed — but this isn’t a box ticking exercise, it’s about the health and safety of swimmers in an area that has lost its blue flag in recent years due to worsening water quality.”

Council chief executive Moira Murrell said that there were 11 blue flag beaches across the county and the standard required for those beaches was ‘excellent’ and that rigorous testing was carried out at those beaches to ensure that the blue flag status was maintained.

“In relation to the monitoring of beaches, we do take our lead from the Environmental Protection Agency, so if there’s any additional requirements or any enhanced testing required, that programme is agreed with the EPA and we will commit to that.”