COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF CLONDALKIN AREA COMMITTEE

Wednesday, March 16, 2022

QUESTION NO. 3

QUESTION: Councillor F. Timmons

"To ask the Chief Executive for an report on water quality in the Camac and that water tests are carried out and results made public , and to ask will the CE liase with Friends of the Camac who undertook water quality testing on 15/07/21 on 2 tributaries of the Camac River. Using Prof. Ken Whelan's scoring system we recorded details as follows; Water quality testing on 15/07/21 on 2 tributaries of the Camac river. Corbally/Brownsbarn tributary. GPS reference 53.274633 and 6.447674. Prof. Ken Whelan's system****, Score of 12. CSSI Score of 0. Boherboy/Crooksling tributary. GPS reference 53.302981 and 6.424811. Prof. Ken Whelan's system, Score of 16. CSSI score of 3. For reference, Prof. Ken Whelan's scoring system is as follows; at or under 17-At Risk 18/19-Indeterminate At or greater than 20-Not at Risk."

REPLY: 

South Dublin County Council collects water quality samples at pre-determined locations along the length of the River Camac each month as part of the Council’s county wide river monitoring programme. The main interest when collecting and testing river water is to check the concentration of certain nutrients and nutrient indicators such as phosphorus, nitrate, ammonia, and biochemical oxygen demand [BOD]. If these are elevated in concentration above limits set in water quality regulations, then it is likely the river is in a less than an ideal state.

Review of the Council’s averaged data for the R. Camac for the period 2018-2021 shows the river, in that period for a selection of sampling locations – middle, lower-middle, and lower, as shown in Table 1, exceeded phosphorus concentrations in the lower-middle and lower sites and occasional increases/exceedances of BOD and nitrate above the regulatory limits at those sites.

Table 1    Sampling locations for the R. Camac

Sample Point ID	X Co-Ordinate	Y Co-Ordinate	Monitoring Site location
101130	703313	726151	Camac River, Riversdale Estate Bridge [lower]
101115	704847	729273	Camac River, Bridge SE of Baldonnell House [lower-middle]
101070	707200	731723	Camac River, Bridge 1 km S/W (U/S) of Saggart [middle]

Sampling of the rivers for chemical concentrations is supplemented with occasional sampling of the river for insects by either the EPA or SDCC, in a manner performed by Prof. Ken Whelan as referenced in the Item. When tested by SDCC in 2018 the standard Q-value index result for each site was recorded as shown in Table 2.

Table 2    Q-value index result for three sampling locations along the R. Camac

Sample Point ID	Monitoring Site location	Q-value
101130	Camac River, Riversdale Estate Bridge [lower]	Poor
101115	Camac River, Bridge SE of Baldonnell House [lower-middle]	Moderate
101070	Camac River, Bridge 1 km S/W (U/S) of Saggart [middle]	Good

The River Camac in South Dublin County is divided by the EPA into three waterbodies [segment of river] and are assigned ecological status by the EPA. This ecological status provides an overall description of the quality of that waterbody/segment and this method is applied to all waterbodies in Ireland. In the last quality assessment of the River Camac carried out by the EPA the upper waterbody was assigned Good Ecological status, the middle Moderate Ecological status, and the lower Poor Ecological status. This information is visually presented at the website https://gis.epa.ie/EPAMaps/ and agrees with the status information and conclusion drawn by SDCC from its monitoring.

The Council collects and retains water quality information for rivers and lakes in the county which is supplied when requested by the public and interested groups.

The Water Pollution Section typically meets with Friends of the Camac once per year to discuss their vision and plans for the year, and how SDCC can assist where possible. It is planned for the Water Pollution Section to meet with FoC along the banks of the river in summer 2022 to continue this collaboration. Throughout the year the Communities Water Officer, as part of the national Local Authority Water Programme unit, is available for extra assistance and funding opportunities, which FoC have availed of in previous years.