A 'do not swim' notice has been lifted from the Velvet Strand in Portmarnock in Dublin.
It was put in place on Wednesday following heavy rainfall at the beginning of the week.
While there were concerns about overflow at a nearby water treatment plant.
A water sample taken on Thursday returned an 'excellent' result today.
The temporary Do Not Swim warning Notice for the Velvet Strand in Portmarnock has been removed. Results received today (5th September) from samples taken on 3rd September indicate a return to “excellent” status for Velvet Strand, Portmarnock beach. pic.twitter.com/LyyOWUw6cs
— Fingal County Council (@Fingalcoco) September 5, 2020
A Long Standing Problem With These Warnings
The system will warn swimmers ahead of a possible bacteria runoff from the treatment plant into the sea.
That is as opposed to the previous system, which would advise bathers after the fact.
Labour Councillor Brian Mc Donagh says these warnings are becoming more and more frequent as a result:
"We have a long standing problem with a pumping station."
"There are two pumping stations in Portmarnock that have had some issues."
"But the problem we have is capacity up at a particular pumping station which serves a fairly small proportion of houses."
"When it rains, as part of the strategy, to deal with that is an overflow."
"They have a warning which is issues when they think there's going to be an overflow or when they know there's going to be an overflow."
"We've been lucky in terms of the last few years, when this happens, some years are worse than others."
"So we haven't had any impact recorded on the beach."
"To be honest with you the frequency is increasing, now whether that's to do with the volume of rain..."
"But we're going to have to address it, Irish Water are going to have to address it."
"It's not really acceptable, throughout the bathing season, to have warning notices lasting three or four days."
