Ciarán Cuffe
Question:702 Mr. Cuffe asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government his views on the recent EPA report which states that overdosing of public water with aluminium is widespread. [11406/03]
Vol. 566 No. 1
702 Mr. Cuffe asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government his views on the recent EPA report which states that overdosing of public water with aluminium is widespread. [11406/03]
Stringent quality requirements for drinking water supplies are prescribed by EU and national standards. Local sanitary authorities have a statutory duty to ensure that drinking water meets these standards. This duty is performed under the general supervision of the EPA which publishes a report annually on the quality of drinking water in Ireland and carries out random auditing of sanitary authorities focusing on reported non-compliance with quality standards. The annual EPA report includes data on the quality of drinking water, based on sampling and analysis, and includes the conclusions and recommendations of the EPA as to any action required to redress quality deficiencies. Copies are sent by the EPA to all sanitary authorities and the report is available in the Oireachtas Library.
The EPA report for 2001 confirms the fundamentally good quality of Irish drinking water with an overall compliance rate of 94.3% with prescribed standards, based on 14 principal parameters including aluminium. The report is based on the results of some 146,000 individual tests on over 22,000 samples of drinking water taken from 2,440 supplies, including 6,704 tests for aluminium.
The report indicates a compliance rate of 91.3% with the aluminium standard. Aluminium in the form of aluminium sulphate salt is used as a coagulant for colour and colloidal-removal in the treatment of water for drinking supplies. A quality standard of 0.2 mg per litre is prescribed in relation to aluminium in accordance with the WHO guidelines for drinking water quality.