Galway City Drinking Water

extraice

Cryptosporidium has a spore phase (oocyst) and in this state can survive for lengthy periods outside a host and also can resist many common disinfectants, notably chlorine based disinfectants [1]. Because of this resistance, water purification to eliminate Cryptosporidium generally relies upon coagulation followed by filtration or boiling. Recently, it has been discovered that Cryptosporidium is sensitive to ultraviolet light, or by ozonation, and water treatments based on these sterilization methods are being develope

Just listen to rte news at 5 pm and if we did not mix the old water works with the new one this would not happend
21 million euros was seat aside to up garde the work works reported on 5 pm news
GCC Commercial Water Charges
Paying Water and Wastewater Charges

Veolia Galway City have been appointed by Galway City Council to operate and maintain the billing service for water charges.

Water Conservation

Water is a limited natural resource and as such the water we use in our homes and businesses is a valuable commodity. It has to go through a very expensive treatment process before we get it.

Water Conservation is one of the surest and cheapest ways that Galway City can ensure the growing needs of our population are met in a sustainable manner.

In 2003 a Nationwide Water Conservation Programme was launched.

The programme is designed to identify and substantially reduce the levels of unaccounted for water in Ireland's water supply network.

The Galway City Water Conservation Project is funded as part of this programme.

Thay got clearen water in 3 world area then we have The Water in Spain much clear then here

YES you can shower in the it but dont drink it

Head have to roll here

NEXT CITY MEET THIS MONDAY AT 7PM
BE THERE TO protest

plonk

It will all change in the next 10 years because of this http://www.wfdireland.ie/

All river, ground and estuarine water will have to comply with this. Everyone will have to have a usage reader attached to their pump by 2009 and you will have to pay for your water usage. Ireland are doing pretty well so far as in they have most of the basics done e.g plan outlined etc


To tell the truth I dont find it that much of a hassle mainly cause I dont drink tap water and where Im from in the county is'nt affected.

plonk

Also someone did a survey, I think it was reps or someone and all the land west of the shannon isnt suitable for the land application of sewage, e.g spreading slurry, and just a question for any of ye with your own sewage tank, How often do you get it desludged* and is your site suitable to having a sewage tank.

Maybe your part of the problem!

In a few years you will have to get a licence for your sewage tank.


*-- you have to desludge it every 2 years

Edit: I bet the amount of people complaining when the water charges are brought in will be huge. Most of eupope and the uk are charged for water and thats why things like this dont happen.

kevmy

plonk wrote:

Edit: I bet the amount of people complaining when the water charges are brought in will be huge. Most of eupope and the uk are charged for water and thats why things like this dont happen.

We already have to pay for it at home out the country. We pay infact because we have house, land and sheds. Just like how we had to pay for our bins for years to get them collected. Yet it will be all the rich city folk who have had it sweet for years who will protest against the water charges.

talkingclock

plonk wrote:

Edit: I bet the amount of people complaining when the water charges are brought in will be huge. Most of eupope and the uk are charged for water and thats why things like this dont happen.

I'm not sure about the water quality in UK but in Germany (where you pay for the water supply too) the tap water is more controlled by various institutions then the bottled water. It is simply worth it's price.

Of course there will be a huge amounts of complaints in Ireland because people will be just not willing to pay for that liquid that is coming from their taps. Sometimes it smells like a swimming pool with all the Chlorine in it...

po0k

Conservation is to be encouraged, but the water supply system itself is losing a significant (I don't have figures to hand) amount of treated water through leaks.
As in any city like Galway, while a replacement or rebuild of the water supply network would be an obvious choice, it wouldn't be practical or economically viable to go digging up the entire city to lay new piping infrastructure.
I'd like to hear to what standards new waterworks are being built to (ie property developers, construction teams working in new housing estates.
A monitoring network of pressure/flowmeters could be implemented though, which would allow engineers to analyse where the greatest losses are being incurred, and repair/replace those sections in order of importance.
Again, not having the numbers beside me, I can't be authorative, but I'd wager that in the medium-term, significant savings could be made on treatment costs, quite possibly enough to offset the implementation of the monitoring network.
Such a network wouldn't need massive bandwidth, Power-over-ethernet could reduce the cabling to one pull per sensor, or better still, one pull per sensor master, with the (passive?) sensors running off a simple robust serial connection.
This is just a suggestion.
Perhaps they already have such a network.

Sponge Bob

Its a good one, I reckon it would do 5 or 6 houses and am willing to discuss business opportunities

CrowdedHouse

I can see it now - Bikini Bottom Well Water™




ModEdit: ™ = Alt + 0153 on the numpad. Or Start->Run->charmap

plonk

plonk wrote:

It will all change in the next 10 years because of this http://www.wfdireland.ie/

All river, ground and estuarine water will have to comply with this. Everyone will have to have a usage reader attached to their pump by 2009 and you will have to pay for your water usage. Ireland are doing pretty well so far as in they have most of the basics done e.g plan outlined etc


To tell the truth I dont find it that much of a hassle mainly cause I dont drink tap water and where Im from in the county is'nt affected.

Does Michael Hymes lecture you too?:)

There's a filter that supposedly takes out the bug from the water. I'm not 100% on the technicality of the thing, but I think it's that the bug is 1micron (?) wide and this gets rid of anything thats over .5microns (open to correction).

Redhairedguy

According to the Advertiser on Thursday, people with the H2O water purification system can drink their water. Like boneyarsebogman said some systems can filter out the bacteria. H2O is one of these systems!

***SCORE***

Snail30

Going to a wedding here so thank god someone is trying to do something...

Filter is 'answer' to bug - and costs just €100

A FILTER which catches the bug that has stricken hundreds in the west could cost the average household just over €100.

An enterprising hotelier claims that a readily available filtration system probably costs less than what some people have spent on bottled water since the crisis began.

The director of Galway Bay Hotel, Garry Walsh, who is also a food scientist, bought a €9,000 filter to remove cryptosporidium from 15,000 gallons of water a day. He said a version of the filter which processes smaller volumes could be bought for just over €100.

Imported

The imported filter was recommended by a water-treatment consultancy firm in Britain that Mr Walsh previously worked with.

He contacted the company for advice and was told that chlorination - the most effective way of removing bacteria and viruses - was not effective against cryptosporidium.

The firm recommended the filter, and Mr Walsh contacted local company AH Cullen, which imported it. It is used at the Salthill hotel and when fully operative by the middle of next week will remove all waterborne parasites.

Last night, Mr Walsh called on the Department of the Environment to distribute information about the filter system to consumers and businesses. He also called on local authorities to issue certificates to all premises that have fitted the system as evidence that their water is safe.

"The mesh in this filter will not allow the bug through. It will provide the Galway Bay Hotel with the cleanest water it ever had. "And the filter will immediately remove the need to purchase bottled water or to boil water," Mr Walsh said.

Anne-Marie Walsh

Redhairedguy

***double Score***

snubbleste

Apparently, tests conducted by a lab in Swansea show that the bug was coming from human sewage (13 samples) and animals (3 samples)
It was on TG4, so it must be true

The Sewage Treatment Plant in Oughterard, Co Galway, has been identified by an RTÉ investigation as a source of the Cryptosporidium outbreak on Lough Corrib..
Meanwhile the RTÉ Radio Investigative Unit has learned that Galway County Council officials had told members of the public that the plant's emissions strictly complied with EPA limits.

However, this evening the Council's Director of Services accepted that this was incorrect and in fact the plant had failed half of the tests conducted over the last five years.

So basically, our own Council lied to us

http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0403/water.html

lisnageragh

Snail30 wrote:

Going to a wedding here so thank god someone is trying to do something...

Filter is 'answer' to bug - and costs just €100

A FILTER which catches the bug that has stricken hundreds in the west could cost the average household just over €100.

An enterprising hotelier claims that a readily available filtration system probably costs less than what some people have spent on bottled water since the crisis began.

The director of Galway Bay Hotel, Garry Walsh, who is also a food scientist, bought a €9,000 filter to remove cryptosporidium from 15,000 gallons of water a day. He said a version of the filter which processes smaller volumes could be bought for just over €100.

Imported

The imported filter was recommended by a water-treatment consultancy firm in Britain that Mr Walsh previously worked with.

He contacted the company for advice and was told that chlorination - the most effective way of removing bacteria and viruses - was not effective against cryptosporidium.

The firm recommended the filter, and Mr Walsh contacted local company AH Cullen, which imported it. It is used at the Salthill hotel and when fully operative by the middle of next week will remove all waterborne parasites.

Last night, Mr Walsh called on the Department of the Environment to distribute information about the filter system to consumers and businesses. He also called on local authorities to issue certificates to all premises that have fitted the system as evidence that their water is safe.

"The mesh in this filter will not allow the bug through. It will provide the Galway Bay Hotel with the cleanest water it ever had. "And the filter will immediately remove the need to purchase bottled water or to boil water," Mr Walsh said.

Anne-Marie Walsh

Would it not just be cheaper and quicker for the Government to purchase one of these filters for every household in Galway County affected areas

Fracture

lisnageragh wrote:

Would it not just be cheaper and quicker for the Government to purchase one of these filters for every household in Galway County affected areas

No, they COULD do that but it would cost millions even if some kind of deal was made with the people who make the filter. I think those filters cost more than 100 euro tho, i was talking to a guy who is buying one for a pub so they can use the ice again etc and he rekons they cost a few hundred bucks, but then again he does chat crap alot of the time.

Sponge Bob

30000 homes x €100 each is €3m , even at €200 each its only €6m and would be working in time for the races, gwan Behrteeeeeee

lostexpectation

snubbleste wrote:

Apparently, tests conducted by a lab in Swansea show that the bug was coming from human sewage (13 samples) and animals (3 samples)
It was on TG4, so it must be true

The Sewage Treatment Plant in Oughterard, Co Galway, has been identified by an RTÉ investigation as a source of the Cryptosporidium outbreak on Lough Corrib..
Meanwhile the RTÉ Radio Investigative Unit has learned that Galway County Council officials had told members of the public that the plant's emissions strictly complied with EPA limits.

However, this evening the Council's Director of Services accepted that this was incorrect and in fact the plant had failed half of the tests conducted over the last five years.

So basically, our own Council lied to us

http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0403/water.html

so where did that waste come from then?

be interesting to know exactly who said it passed the tests,

snubbleste

It's made the bbcnews international website

'Irish city crippled by water emergency'

Interceptor

Dunno what all the fuss is about. The water in Galway was always dirty and dangerous but it didn't have a name before. Every time I go to Paris I get the squits but I don't see anyone over there making a big kerfuffle about it. Brush your teeth with vodka and stop washing, just quit whining about it.

'cptr

snubbleste

snubbleste wrote:

It's made the bbcnews international website

'Irish city crippled by water emergency'

Here's the link

po0k

Related story

SimpleSam06

kevmy wrote:

I see O Brollochain has written/email/texte the governement aasking them to provide free tankers of disinfected water and to provide money to upgrade the water treatment plant.

Of course the genius didn't realise money had been provided for that purpose years ago. Sigh. I'm beginning to see new meaning in his campaign slogan... "if theres a future its going to be green"... He needs to work on the doctor evil pinkie though.

Sponge Bob

It seems that The City Council knew about all this before last years Galway races.

1. The officials never told the councillors ( remember this other recent omission by the same officials)
2. Nothing was done to progress a solution in engineering terms
3. No requests were made for funds, after all there was no plan to fix it.
4. The Health Board was not informed, this caused a few false positive vomiting virus scares in hospital and delayed specific testing of seriously ill persons.

Naturally none of the incompetent City Council officials will be sacked, poisoning the citizenry is not a sackable offence.

po0k

Aside from someone posting here, where might one learn the names of said "officials"?

Sponge Bob

Dunno the names, the city manager refused to tell the councillors who knew or whether he knew.

The same city manager refuses to confirm eyre square cost 11m or 12m, councillors are simply not entitled to know when the City spends millions over budget it seems

Nor has the city manager told the councillors when he knew of South park, allegedly in 2005 but the kiddies were allowed to play there till 2006 when it became embarrasing

sometimes , of course, these things are kept quiet by agreement betwen councillors and manager.

The Council now asserts they had consultants in place to progress a solution. As soem of yiz know, these matters have to go to tender. Here is a list of EVERY tender going back to 2004. I see plenty of sewage projects for new build but nothing about remedials on the water

List Here ( click PAST TENDERS)

http://e-tenders.gov.ie/search/AuthProfile.aspx?ID=AA02067

Nevertheless the Corpo states as follows

http://www.galwaycity.ie/NewsFlash/WaterContamination/

"In order to determine whether a practical industry-based interim solution could be applied to the old water treatment plant, we approached a number of companies with recognised expertise (including Enva Ireland Ltd.) to assess the plant and to determine if an industry solution was feasible."

an approach would be a chat about what might be tendered in future, it does not mean a tender was issued to do the work of course. It was a chat about things basically.

However, the Council is legally obliged to go through a public procurement process in progressing any individual solution. The responses indicated that an interim solution was feasible. Having established this, Galway City Council, in accordance with procurement guidelines, immediately commenced the procurement of an interim solution by preparing a brief for the appointment of a Consultant Engineer to advance the provision of a package treatment plant for the old water treatment plant.

so they wrote a one page job description and never advertised the job or appointed the person or drew up a tender to appoint more consultants or published a tender or requested funds.

In addition, the Council engaged independent expertise to undertake a detailed evaluation of the solutions proposed , to conduct an audit of the old treatement plant

no tender again, how odd.

All of this work was progressed by the City Council in advance of the current outbreak of cryptosporidium, This was instrumental in enabling us to respond speedily to the advancement of an interim solution to a point where invitations to tender have now issued to 7 firms of Consultant Engineers to install a package treatment plant at the old treatment plant.

now they finally issued that one page job description to appoint engineers. the engineers will recommend a package of measures sometime late this year . A further tender will invite specialised construction companies to install the package . They may show up on site this time next year, maybe.

Over and above this, Galway City Council has been working with Galway County Council to advance a short- term solution whereby 17,000 m3 of water per day will be available to the City from Galway County Councils water treatment plant at Luimnagh by mid June.

ahh yes, Tuam water

The pipe along the Tuam road is already bursting regularly becuase of the pressure inside. It is somewhat unlikely that it can pump much more water than it does for 16 hours a day although it can pump more at night if the corpo will fill their reservoirs then .

there will be generally be insufficient extra water to flush out the crap from the pipes though but they will try to clean out a few in the tourist areas in the City.

In relation to the Councils water sampling programme and level of compliance, there is an extensive sampling programme in place, which is submitted annually to the EPA for independent assessment

It is not extensive and is highly selective. Again the councillors will not be told , even if they ask

In addition since 1999, the monthly results for cryptosporidium indicate that at no time, prior to the current outbreak, did the results exceed the UK guideline value). The first exceedance was detected on the 19th March, 2007 ie 4 days after the issue of the `boil water`notice on the 15th March, 2007.

Thats because they first tested either side of the old waterworks in march 2007, had they tested earlier as part of their allegedly "extensive" series of tests for submission to the EPA then they would have found the critterscitter bug a lot earlier. As for the tests, GIGO lads !

Galway City Council is continuing to work in full co-operation with the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, his Department, Galway County Council, HSE West and the EPA to ensure that this matter is resolved at the earliest possible date.

IE

We now promise to tell the hospital which is full of sick people .

No apologies for all the winter vomiting false positives all winter though. Lots of people who thought they had the vomiting virus actually had critterscitter although I believe it cannot be found retroactively .

Sponge Bob

Jim Fahy visited Dunmore today and got some lovely pics of the sewage system which is actually a large septic tanks which only desludges the sewage and dumps the water in the river.

Lovely stuff . This then flows into the Corrib via claregalway

Mentioned a few months back here

http://www.unison.ie/tuam_herald/stories.php3?ca=40&si=1764309&issue_id=15179

padi89

Sky News must be stuck for storys today,live report from Galway on the whole situation.