Ennell water quality below EU standard

The water quality at one of Mullingar’s most famous bathing spots has failed to meet the EU’s basic standard.

Lough Ennell’s Lilliput bathing area is one of only four Irish swimming spots out of 135 that failed to meet the EU’s basic water quality standards last year, according to a new report by the Environmental Protection Area (EPA).

In the report the EPA attribute Lilliput’s poor performance last year due to a ‘lengthy period of contamination late on in the season which is believed to have originated from a waste water source’.

A bathing ban was put in place at Lough Ennell for almost a month last July after algal bloom was detected.

The water quality at the two other local bathing spots featured in the report, Portnashangan on Lough Owel and The Cut at Lough Lene, was deemed ‘good’ by testers.

Local authorities are obliged to test the quality of the water at bathing spots every two weeks during the season which runs from June 1 to September 15. Councils are required to submit the findings to the EU, via the EPA.