Council succeeds in getting the lead out

Date Published: 13-Nov-2009

CIARÁN Hayes looks like a man with a great weight lifted off his shoulders – the Director of Services for Infrastructure and Transportation in Galway City Council has reached a milestone with the resolution of the lead contamination crisis, which 15 months ago looked like an impossibly tall mountain to climb.

It came just a year after probably the biggest crisis the city has gone through for 50 years with the cryptosporidium outbreak, which hit just weeks after Mr Hayes moved from housing to the water section.

This week he is reflecting on what he sees as a remarkable achievement from the airy new offices of his department beside City Hall.

The accepted level of lead in drinking water is 25mg per litre but at the height of the contamination levels in some houses reached 121mg. Readings taken after the Council’s programme of works show these houses are down to 5mg.

In Old Mervue, of the 251 houses connected to the water supply via lead pipes, all but six have had their pipes replaced, a take-up rate of over 95%. Where similar schemes were undertaken in the UK, it was just 7%.

It has taken a lot of hard graft to get to this point. Mr Hayes is keen to praise the leadership shown by local councillors, but particularly the Trojan work done by the residents associations.

The contamination came to light after testing by the HSE on some of the older housing stock. Mr Hayes said the Council was aware there was an issue with lead in some areas of the city because they used to test up to 100 homes a year, over 10 times the number of tests they are required to under the regulations.

Following the HSE’s results, the council identified 3,500 homes most at risk, with Old Mervue, Shantalla, Bohermore and the Claddagh the hot spots.

It emerged that Old Mervue was unique among the city’s estates. Before 1970 cast iron pipes were used and it was the practice to join these to short lead pipes. However, in Old Mervue, 3km of one-inch lead pipes fed water into homes via the back garden. This meant that the water was static for longer in the pipes which increased the likelihood of corrosion and, in turn, contamination.

Experts from the UK decided to increase the pH level from an average of 7 to between 7.8 and 8, which costs an annual €500,000. Reducing the acidity has no effect on the taste or safety of the water but it decreases its corrosiveness on the pipes. In just three months, this change halved the lead levels.

Next it was decided to replace the lead pipes in all Council stock and encourage private householders to follow suit. Convincing Old Mervue – a Council estate built in the 50s, where now all but three are privately owned – to join the scheme was the biggest hurdle.

“The residents’ association knocked on doors and explained to residents what was involved, they were very proactive in encouraging householders to come on board. I also arranged for the Credit Union to give loans to cover the cost of the works. We set up a grant scheme giving grants of up to €300,” explained Mr Hayes.

“We also engaged a specialist contractor who was able to drill under the houses to bring the supply from the stopcock to the gate so then all that was needed was for a plumber to connect from there to the kitchen tap, so there was the least disruption possible. If householders didn’t engage with our contractor on site it would have cost a lot more to get done later. There was also the issue of the future sale of these houses unless their water quality was improved.”

The average cost of the work was €800 in Old Mervue, similarly in Shantalla, where the Council had to undertake the work on 39 of its own houses with a further 60 private houses joining up.

The Council is currently finalising work on 12 houses in the Claddagh, where the deadline for applying for the grants has been extended a second time to the end of this month.

The cost of the contamination has yet to be determined as the pipe work has not been finalised. So far the bill, including the cost of providing bottled water, has reached €700,000.

Mr Hayes said the Council had learned from its experience with the cryptosporidium outbreak and engaged directly with residents, which has proven to be “very fruitful”.

“Over a year down the road we have resolved the problem, not just for the present but into the future, as the lead levels will be cut by the EU to 10mg in 2013. It shows that strengthening the link between residents associations and local authorities certainly does pay off for the benefit for the community.”