Drinking water supplies in 13 counties including Donegal have been found to have a high level of an environmental pollutant, trihalomethanes (THMs), which has been linked to cancer.
In fact, Donegal had numerous quality failures when tested by Irish Water.
THMs are usually formed as a result of adding chlorine to water and some studies suggest long-term exposure to high levels of the pollutant may be linked to cancer.
Irish Water tested 791 samples of drinking water this year to assess if they exceeded the allowed limit of the pollutant, with 59 samples failing the inspection across 13 different counties.
Many water supplies had multiple failures, with several in counties like Donegal, Clare and Louth.
Our view is that exposure to THMs should be minimised, and kept at an absolute minimum.
Dr Michelle Minihan, a senior inspector with the Environmental Protection Agency, said action would be taken to address the pollution levels.
“Our view is that exposure to THMs should be minimised, and kept at an absolute minimum,” she said.
“The way we’ve gone about addressing that is that where we identify supplies where the level of THMs in them is above the regulatory limit, and where that’s a persistent occurrence, we take action and add those to our remedial action list.
“That means that Irish Water has to identify an action programme to address the THM exceedances.”
Irish Water has said it has a programme in place to address all inadequacies in drinking water, including THMs.
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