Mains water issues in Killiney/Ballybrack.... please help

FrinkDink

Ive posted here before, regarding very poor water quality. I live in Killiney, the part between Sallynoggin and Ballybrack, unfortunately not Bono country, but hey, sure its grand here.

Anyway, after much reluctance from the Corpo to do anything about the constant problems of dirt in the water, combined with occasional slime (!) infestations on my part of the road at least, they sent a chemist round to perform various tests. I knew what would happen, in that no serious pathogens would be present, but still quite minor bacteria (in their opinion) was, as well as planty of fine sediment. These only count as aesthetic issues, and are a problem that large parts of the general area have due to poor water infrastructure in this very southern part of the county. However, I made a point of asking the chemist what the chlorine residual was. He reluctantly answered that the reading was 0.03mg/L.

Now I know a lot of uninformed people complain about taste and odour from chlorine if you are close to a dosing point, but these folk don't know how lucky they are. With such a low level of disinfection at our part if the system, its no wonder the quality is so bad. There is literally always some gunk floating in there, the only way to minimise the problems is to very regularly flush out the hydrants, which they refuse to do now, as I have had to ask them to do it three times in two months, as the quality of water kept degrading.

Having lived in various other parts of the county, I can assure you that we have vastly inferior water quality, and I think this situation is quite bizarre in this day and age. I know that parts of the area's network will be better than others due to better design, higher chlorination etc. If you are from this general area, and have experienced problems with the supply for years on end, I would urge you to contact Dublin City Council, or Stillorgan Water Works, and tell them. I know of a good few people who have the same problems as us, arent happy about it, but are reluctant to take any action, believing that all of Dublin has roughly the same standard!

311

I wreckon the only way you will get satisfaction ,is by getting the water tested privately.

Maybe the results would encourage you to search for help from your neighbours ,if there was something seriously wrong.

CJhaughey

I understand where you are coming from, we have constant issues with poor quality water from GWS.
and TBH I have decided to take matters into my own hands and just treat all water coming into the house with UV and sediment prefilters.
I would prefer to pay the €100 every 14 months to ensure that the water is safe to drink, who knows what the quality may be in 2 weeks time?
I know that there was a boil notice in a town not far from me recently when the CoCo works crew were digging up the mains they burst the mains and also a sewerage pipe, thereby contaminating the mains water!
You cannot rely on the County council to do anything properly, as far as I can see it's a sort of rehab for people incapable of functioning in a normal workplace.

FrinkDink

We would need to treat the whole house water supply, because a lot of crap ends up in the attic tank. Even the bloody chemist sounded clueless when I mentioned the long term problems we have had with the supply here, and the council were making me rely on those test results for a 'recommendation' as to what action would be taken.

The most painful part of it for us is that it is so avoidable, it is just complete ignorant negligence, and a refusal to even believe me when I have called them up. The water board that serves us even turns down the water pressure to a trickle at midnight for a few hours, which lets in all the crap from the leaking, badly maintained pipes in the area. They just can't see how stupid their policies are too.

Just crazy really. I hate having to ring these people up, cap in hand, and ask for them to flush out these pipes, only to be met with much resistance every single time, despite the fact that we're basically taking mud showers by that point!

CJhaughey

Thats exactly what I am saying, I have put a UV tube inline so that ALL incoming water is subjected to irradiation.
This is after the particulate filters that take all the grit and other stuff out of the water.
If you go down this road at least you will have the security of knowing that whatever muck comes down the pipe at least you won't get Giardia or Cryptosporidium like the inhabitants of Galway.
I was toying with the idea of sending the council the bill for all the works I have done...

eoghan.geraghty

There is no use in getting on to the corpo about this.
Any decisions about this are taken by the county managers.
You would have more luck hassling a county councillor, thats what you voted them in for.

FrinkDink

eoghan.geraghty wrote:

There is no use in getting on to the corpo about this.
Any decisions about this are taken by the county managers.
You would have more luck hassling a county councillor, thats what you voted them in for.

Thing is, when one of the head 'engineers' came round last week to blindly tell me the water is fine and try to silence me (lol), he stated that the area I live in has no county council when it comes to water supply! (with a smirk, as I recall)

We are geographically in the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown area, but those monkeys contracted several areas out to Dublin City Council, who er, 'manage' our water. We basically have no water rights, as we have no county councillors to go to. Dublin City Council dont really recognise the southside areas as theirs, so I dont know why they took us on. DLRCC say they 'dont want to step on Stillorgan Water's (DCC subdivision) toes!

If there were to be any serious contamination like CJHaughey's issues above, then they would step in. But I almost have to offer to bribe the DCC to send people out to flush out the hydrant. Ideally, it would be automatically flushed once a fortnight, but they only seem willing to do it every few months. I realise we wont die from the water, just live in discomfort. When its cleared through these hydrants on the street, its totally grand, but it quickly becomes laden with sediment and weird black particles.

So you never know what quality of water awaits you when you wake up in the morning, unless you know for a fact that a flushing has very recently taken place. A big part of the problem is that the pressure gets turned down significantly at exactly midnight, until about 5 in the morning. This is what is causing the sediment problems, with crap getting into the pipes. Its so stupid it boggles the mind, but they are obsessed with how their leakage figures look. I for one want a decent frickin water supply.