A major engineering project will help clean Dublin Bay of waste water pollution,
With just three beaches in Dublin awarded the blue flag this year, the number of clean water bathing areas in the county has been dropping.
Sewage, litter and development in the bay area, there are few safe places left to swim in Dublin Bay.
If the sun does decide to come out, who among us would be brave enough to dip more than a toe into Dublin Bay.
Environmentalist Lorna Kelly claims that people stopped swimming at Sandymount and neighbouring beaches many years ago. She recalls a time when the water was clear before it became polluted.
Efforts are now underway to clean up Dublin Bay.
The Dublin Bay Project is the largest environmental improvement scheme ever undertaken here.
The project is funded largely by EU cohesion funds and is designed to meet EU objectives. There are plans for a £200 million treatment works at Ringsend which will work to clean up Dublin Bay. Batty White, Project Engineer, says that there will be primary, secondary and tertiary treatment of waste resulting in vastly improved water quality in Dublin Bay. Pipelines from Dun Laoghaire and Sutton will bring all waste to Ringsend.
We'll end up with one single treatment works for the whole Dublin area.
Lorna Kelly is concerned that by the time the new system is up and running it will be out of date and will have reached capacity.
EU law means that it is no longer legal to pump untreated waste into the sea. By 2001, all waste will have to undergo three stages of treatment. While Ireland won't make that deadline, engineers on the Dublin Bay Project claim that by 2002, Dublin Bay will be almost free from wastewater pollution.
Many who are confident in the project believe that many Dublin beaches will be returned to blue flag status.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 13 July 2000. The reporter is Vivienne Traynor.
