Councillor disputes that Brosna pollutants are ‘historic in nature’

Doubt has been cast by a Mullingar area councillor on the theory that pollutants showing up in the Brosna are “historic in nature”.

At the March meeting of the Municipal District of Mullingar Kinnegad, Cllr Andrew Duncan asked for the details of the most recent results of water quality sampling conducted on Lough Ennell and downstream of Mullingar Waste Water treatment plant.

The response from the district said that the latest round of sampling results under the Water Framework Directive (WFD) monitoring programme are publicly available on www.catchments.ie and that separately, Westmeath County Council, in collaboration with Local Authority Water Programme (LAWPRO) and EPA, have carried out further investigative sampling in light of a recent EPA report that identified increased levels of per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) detections in the Upper Brosna River.

Concluded the response: “It is acknowledged that PFAS compounds can persist in the environment, and it is probable that the detections are historic in nature and are not occurring at present. These results are currently being analysed and will be reported on shortly.”

Cllr Duncan wasn’t satisfied with the answer, and said he had not restricted his query to the presence of PFAS.

“I have major concerns about some of the things I am seeing at the mouth of the Brosna,” Cllr Duncan said. “This is something that’s not going away. We have a problem and we have to identify the problem,” he told the meeting.

Director of services, Deirdre Reilly, told Cllr Duncan that internally, the executive has a meeting coming up with the EPA, LAWPRO and Uisce Éireann on this exact topic.

She agreed that the response provided to Cllr Duncan addresses only the question of PFAS and said she would look into that.