Update regarding Prohibition 'Do Not Swim' Notice which remains in place at Front Strand, Balbriggan

The Latest bathing water results from Front Strand Beach, Balbriggan taken on 25th and also the 29th of August have met the standard for ‘good’ water quality. However, following consultation with the HSE the prohibition ‘do not swim’ notice will remain in place until further rounds of satisfactory bathing results are received.

Elevated levels of faecal bacteria were found in the Bracken River within Balbriggan Town.  Following detailed investigations and testing a misconnected pipe was identified and rectified. Sampling results from August 25th of the Bracken river within the town indicate that E.coli remains elevated and poses a risk to the bathing water at the beach.

Irish Water and Fingal County Council have been investigating potential sources of contamination to the river and the bathing water and these investigations will continue.   Frequent testing of the river and the bathing water will continue until the situation is resolved.

The bathing water sample taken on Monday 29th August  gave a result of good water quality but following consultation with the HSE the bathing water restriction remains in place until September 9th.

Full details of Bathing Water Quality results from resamples taken on Thursday 25th August, 2022 are as follows:

• South Beach Skerries met the standard for ‘excellent’ water quality.
• Front Strand Beach Balbriggan and Loughshinny Beach both met the standard for ‘good’ water quality (the prohibition ‘do not swim’ notice remains in place at Balbriggan).
• The non-identified bathing water at Malahide Beach also met with ‘excellent’ status (constant red flag).

Members of the public can check for water quality at any of the monitored bathing waters in Ireland in advance by accessing the EPA website at www.beaches.ie or by checking the notice board at the entrance to each beach.
To view an explanation of the standards used for reporting results of bathing water and the assessment of risk to bather health deemed to meet “Poor” standard, please got to https://www.fingal.ie/bathing-water-quality-monitoring-faqs