A do not swim warning is in place for Kilkee until further notice.
On Saturday afternoon, Clare County Council on the advice of the HSE placed a prohibition on swimming in Kilkee “due to a malfunction of Irish Water sewage infrastructure”.
The Clare Echo understands that this ban will remain in place for the entire week, at least.
Irish Water have said they are working with the local authority to “repair two incidences of rising main bursts at Kilkee” carrying out repairs which is feared to have resulted in wastewater discharge at the beach.
In a statement to The Clare Echo, Irish Water detailed that crews were working to repairs the bursts as quickly and as safely as possible. “Tankers are on-site collecting wastewater to minimise any impact and discharges to the stream which leads to the beach”.
Repairs plus the results of sampling from bathing waters are needed before the notice can be lifted. Notification of the incident has been circulated to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
