REPLY

The watercourses mentioned are part of the Eastern River Basin District and as such are part of the on-going monitoring and discussion across the 9 local authorities involved in the ERBD.
River Liffey

The Water Pollution Control section of South Dublin County Council (the Council) collects statutory water quality samples from the River Liffey at five monitoring sites four times per annum as per the requirement of Water Framework Directive (WFD) legislation. The location of these monitoring sites, know as Operational Monitoring (OM) sites, are shown in Figure 1 and listed in Table 1. 

Figure 1	Location of Water Framework Directive operational monitoring sites on the River Liffey in South County Dublin

Table 1	Operation Monitoring sites along the River Liffey in South Dublin County area
Leixlip Bridge	
Weir 1.8 km downstream Leixlip Bridge	
Lucan Bridge	
Knockmaroon Footbridge	

River Griffeen
There is no statutory requirement for monitoring of the River Griffeen under the Water Framework Directive but the Council carries out regular non statutory monitoring at seven monitoring sites along its length. In 2010 monitoring was carried out on five occasions. The presence of the Newcastle municipal wastewater treatment would have been the main driver for the number and frequency of monitoring of the river. The location of these monitoring sites is shown in Table 2.

Table 2	Non statutory monitoring sites along the River Griffeen in South Dublin County area

Grifeen River Bridge N7	
Grifeen River D/S Newcastle S/Works	
Grifeen River Nangor Road	
Grifeen River Bridge at Canal	
Grifeen River Esker Bridge	
Grifeen River Gauging Station	

Results
River Liffey
The results of Operation Monitoring for 2010 are summarised in Table 3.

Table 3	Operation Monitoring sites averaged physicochemical results for 2010 the River Liffey in South Dublin County area against WFD limits
Monitoring site	WFD status	Ammonical nitrogen
mg/l	Soluble phosphorus
mg/l	
WFD High Status Limit		<0.04	<0.025	
WFD Good Status Limit		<0.065	<0.035	
Leixlip Bridge	Pass* 	0.045	0.0325	
Weir 1.8 km downstream Leixlip Bridge	Fail	0.255	0.042	
Lucan Bridge	Fail	0.300	0.035	
Knockmaroon Footbridge	Fail	0.180	0.027	
Key: * indicates Good status with regard to physicochemical monitoring
Grey shading indicates measured averages exceeding legislative limits

Water quality in the River Liffey is impacted by the discharge from the Leixlip wastewater treatment plant. 
This water quality is dealt with as part of the ERBD process. The licence from the EPA has required Kildare County Council to carry out works to upgrade the treatment plant by January 2012 and this will greatly improve the water quality in this part of the river.  The statutory limits are quite stringent and while there is a "fail" rating it is not believed to be detrimental to the ecology of the river.

River Griffeen 
The results for non statutory water quality are summarised Table 4 and are compared against WFD statutory limits.

Table 4	Operation Monitoring sites averaged physicochemical results for 2010 the River Griffeen in South Dublin County area against WFD limits
Monitoring site	WFD status	Ammonical nitrogen
mg/l	Soluble phosphorus
mg/l	
WFD High Status Limit		<0.04	<0.025	
WFD Good Status Limit		<0.065	<0.035	
Grifeen River Bridge N7	Pass	0.018	0.023	
Grifeen River D/S Newcastle S/Works	Pass	0.021	0.020	
Grifeen River Nangor Road	Pass	0.018	0.020	
Grifeen River Bridge at Canal	Pass	0.021	0.018	
Grifeen River Esker Bridge	Pass	0.032	0.018	
Grifeen River Gauging Station	Pass	0.055	0.026	

Physicochemical water quality in the River Griffeen is of High to good quality along most of its stretch but does deteriorate in the urban area.