Calls for water filtration at source of water supply
By Brendan Grehan
AN ONGOING problem with hard water in the Lucan area has led to a local councillor calling for a water filtration system to be installed at the source of Lucan’s water supply.
Councillor Vicki Casserly made the call after receiving complaints from residents about the effect hard water has on their appliances.
South Dublin County Council Mayor Vicki Casserly
She said: “There is an issue with hard water in the Lucan water. I have received a number of complaints about it, as it affects appliances like kettles and washing machines. There have been calls for filtration systems to be fitted in homes, but it is not financially viable.”
Cllr Casserly called for a filtration system to be introduced at the source of the Lucan water supply.
The Echo contacted Irish Water to see if they had comment to make on the issue with hard water in Lucan.
Gavin Nugent from Irish Water said: “The water supply in the Greater Dublin Area (GDA) comes from a number of different Water Treatment Plants, primarily the Liffey plants at Leixlip Water Treatment Plant (WTP) and Ballymore Eustace WTP. The water balance between the two is a function of the supply/ demand balance from time to time and is managed on a daily basis. Both are modern well-run plants which fully meet all statutory drinking water standards. Since March, 2018 the supply of water from the Leixlip WTP has been extended to areas of South Dublin (Lucan, Palmerstown and North Clondalkin) because of increased demand overall in the network.
“This rebalancing of the supply from both plants is unavoidable in order to ensure a secure sustainable water supply to homes and businesses in these areas and avoid water restrictions and water outages.”
Mr Nugent also told The Echo that both the Leixlip and Ballymore Eustace supply sources meet drinking water regulations but have different characteristics, with Leixlip water being classified as moderately hard, compared to Ballymore Eustace. Hardness is a natural characteristic of much of Ireland’s drinking water supply. Hard water contains high levels of natural minerals absorbed from rock and soil.
He added: “Hard water is not harmful to your health, in fact, the higher mineral content of hard water (such as calcium and magnesium) may confer health benefits above that of soft water. Irish Water does not chemically treat water to remove these mineral salts as they are naturally occurring and fully consistent with safe drinking water.”
