{"id":116030,"date":"2025-11-01T13:26:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T13:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/116030\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T13:26:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T13:26:09","slug":"cork-southside-area-had-over-eight-times-permitted-levels-of-manganese-in-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/116030\/","title":{"rendered":"Cork southside area had over eight times permitted levels of manganese in water"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\">Seven months after the HSE castigated Uisce \u00c9ireann for not informing the public of high levels of manganese in drinking water in Cork city, one southside area had more than eight times the maximum allowed in EU law.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Across the city, in one northside area, two-thirds of the tests carried out on drinking water this year showed manganese levels exceeding EU maximums.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Manganese is a naturally occurring mineral which can, at high levels, be extremely harmful, potentially affecting brain development in infants and children, and in adults it can also cause symptoms similar to Parkinson\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The EU Drinking Water (2023) Regulations allow a maximum of 50 microgrammes per litre (\u00b5g\/L).<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">During the week beginning September 22, manganese levels of 428\u00b5g\/L were recorded at Friars Walk, more than eight times the EU maximum, according to data released under a Freedom of Information request from Thomas Gould, Sinn F\u00e9in TD for Cork North Central.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">In the first nine months of this year, two-thirds of all tests carried out in the Ballyhooley Rd &#8216;B&#8217; area showed manganese levels above EU maximums.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Half of those carried out in the Ballyhooley Rd \u2018A\u2019 area also failed to comply with regulations. In February, the HSE expressed alarm at high levels of manganese in drinking water on the northside and in parts of the southside, saying that if such exposure was ongoing, its immediate recommendation would be a \u2018Do Not Consume\u2019 notice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Above the levels of 50\u00b5g\/L, water can appear discoloured, giving a metallic taste and staining laundry, but the HSE cautioned Uisce \u00c9ireann on its claims that clear water was safe to consume from a manganese perspective.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Uisce \u00c9ireann \u201cmust understand that the HSE\u2019s health advice is not based on the subjectivity of whether water is discoloured or not, but on evidence-based manganese concentration levels in drinking water in relation to health\u201d, the HSE said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">On March 3, manganese levels of 193\u00b5g\/L were recorded at Richmond Tce, off Gardiner\u2019s Hill, almost four times the EU maximum, and when  The Echo published those figures in September, Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin described the situation as \u201cvery serious\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cIt\u2019s quite shocking that the levels would be that high, and if known about, the public should be made aware of it, of course,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">A week after Mr Martin\u2019s comments, on Friday, September 26, Brian McCarthy, Uisce \u00c9ireann\u2019s regional operations manager, told this newspaper the reason the public was not made aware was because other, contemporaneous, samples might have been lower.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cOn any given week, we sample 25 locations around the city, and on the week of the 193(\u00b5g\/L), there might have been 23, 24 samples taken, all of which are compliant, so where do you stop?\u201d Mr McCarthy asked.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\n            \u201cWhat about the other 24 samples that were fully compliant? Are you going to tell all those people that their water is unsafe?\u201d\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">He said that \u201cup to 94, 95%\u201d of samples were in compliance on manganese limits.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">According to data subsequently released to Mr Gould, 82% of tests carried out across the city that week by Uisce \u00c9ireann were compliant.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">That week, manganese levels of 100\u00b5g\/L were recorded at Capwell, twice the EU limit; 108\u00b5g\/L at Deerpark; 271\u00b5g\/L on College Rd, more than five times the EU limit; and 428\u00b5g\/L at Friars Walk, more than eight times the EU limit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Mr Gould said that the high levels of manganese in Cork city drinking water had not gone away. \u201cThis is a public health crisis and it is clear that Uisce \u00c9ireann do not have a handle on it,\u201d the northside TD said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\n            \u201cUisce \u00c9ireann have tried to dismiss this as water discolouration and a nuisance for people \u2014 there are multiple occurrences in areas like Blarney St and the Boreenmana Rd, where manganese levels were above the limit, but the water was not discoloured.\u00a0\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">&#8220;This is not about the water looking dirty, this is about the danger posed to newborn babies, pregnant women, and vulnerable people,\u201d Mr Gould said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">A spokesperson for Uisce \u00c9ireann said: \u201cIn 2025, the vast majority of samples taken across the network are compliant: 94% for manganese, 96% for iron, and 94% for colour. Following all exceedances at customer properties, including those in September referred to in your query, an investigation is carried out, reactive flushing is typically undertaken, and follow-up sampling arranged. For the locations referenced, multiple compliant sample results have been returned since the reactive flushing work was carried out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seven months after the HSE castigated Uisce \u00c9ireann for not informing the public of high levels of manganese&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,79,61,60,23798],"class_list":{"0":"post-116030","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-cork-news","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-irish-water"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}