Six water supplies in the Northern Sound region had excessive levels of organic matter in drinking water last year.
The Clones water supply has also been noted as needing urgent upgrade works to meet THM standards. The latest report from the EPA shows that while drinking water quality is generally high, there are still some problem areas. The Cavan-Monaghan area is one of the worst affected regions when it comes to excessive trihalomethane levels. Trihalomethanes (THMs) are chemical byproducts formed when chlorine, used to disinfect drinking water, reacts with natural organic matter in the water. Six supplies: Ballyjamesduff, Killeshandra, Belturbet, Clones, Drum, and the Lough Egish Regional Water Supply all failed THM tests last year. The Clones supply has been added to the EPA's remedial action list as a result of this, meaning it requires urgent works to bring it up to standard.
Elsewhere, the Emyvale, Glaslough, and Cavan supplies also had failures relating to excessive levels of pesticides last year. Lough Egish was also included in this. One group water scheme the Castlerahan, Mountnugent and Munterconnaught scheme was affected by the elevated THM levels in the Ballyjamesduff supply. Despite this, THM compliance improved year on year. The agency's latest report shows close to 500 thousand people are being serviced by 'at risk' supplies.
That's down from around 561 thousand people last year.
