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Balbriggan Beach Reopens After E.coli Scare

1st September 2012
Balbriggan Beach Reopens After E.coli Scare

#COASTAL NOTES - The Irish Times reports that Balbriggan Beach was reopened for swimming yesterday 31 August after the latest in a string of E.coli scares around the Irish coast.

The beach at the north Co Dublin coastal town was closed to bathers after a pumping station malfunction caused raw sewage to be pumped into the sea for up to 24 hours earlier this week.

E.coli levels were subsequently recorded at five times the maximum EU safety limit, and as much as 100 times the Blue Flag standard for European beaches.

The incident raised concerns among campaigners opposed to the proposed new water treatment 'super plant' for Fingal.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, worries have been expressed by locals in the towns of Skerries, Loughskinny and Rush about the effects of the planned outfall pipe in their area.

The Balbriggan swimming ban marked the second beach closure in north Dublin during August, after the waters at Rush South were found to be contaminated with E.coli over the bank holiday weekend.

A bathing ban was also imposed on seven beaches in Cork last month due to high levels of the bacteria, while a breach of safe levels at Salthill in Galway last week caused concern ahead of tomorrow's Ironman 70.3 triathlon.

Published in Coastal Notes
MacDara Conroy

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MacDara Conroy

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MacDara Conroy is a contributor covering all things on the water, from boating and wildlife to science and business

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Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.