Friday 20th July Kilkee beach (along with Lahinch and Spanish Point) was closed on order from Clare County Council following consultations with EPA, HSE and An Taisce. This was a very serious decision to take and I would like to know who made the decision in each of these organisations and their competence to make this decision. The decision we are led to believe from press releases was based on the level of E.coli in the water. I have studied bacteriology at third level but I would not feel competent to make such a decision. The coliform bacteria range of bacteria contains so many types of E.coli that it is a branch of bacteriology in its own right. The many strains vary from those that are useful, those that are benign right through to the pathogenic strains which can cause illness. The different strains can mutate from non-pathogenic to pathogenic depending on the environment, concentration, dilution, pH, salinity, temperature and many other variables. Sometimes E.coli are just indicators of the presence of other organisms. So it is an area where the interpretation of readings requires considerable expertise and experience.
Leaving aside the technicality of bacterial count did the raised level cause pollution? The answer is quite clear for anyone with a modicum of scientific knowledge. The massive volume of Atlantic Ocean tidal water entering Kilkee Bay twice daily makes pollution by bacterial contamination next to impossible. The same applies to all the beaches on the western seaboard which of course includes Lahinch and Spanish Point. How is it that the county councils of Galway and Kerry did not close their beaches especially as one would expect the water run-off to be greater because of their more mountainous terrain. In the whole country only 3 beaches were closed and they were all in County Clare! Clare Co Council in their statement stated that they were pleased that the level of bacteria count had dropped. Of course it had –the next incoming tide would have brought it down to normal levels.
The next question is the damage that this over-reaction has done. Apart from the direct loss of income from those that earn a livelihood on the beach and in the sea, the cancellations were significant and also the unquantifiable numbers of those tourists who decided not to go to the seaside because of ‘pollution’. Then there is the long term damage. Over a decade ago Clare County Council unnecessarily closed half (!) Kilkee bay and beach. For a number of years afterwards tourists would ask ‘Is it safe to swim?’ or ‘Is the water still polluted?’ Another comment which I have heard a number of times is ‘I have stomach trouble or I have skin trouble (……..fill in whatever illness you like) and I was in for a swim –it must be the pollution’. This myth became so embedded that a geography textbook on the Leaving Cert course quoted Kilkee Bay as an example of water pollution! So there will be long term effects.
On the Friday and Saturday in question, both the bay and beach were deserted. On the finest day of the summer so far, the beach should have been crowded with sunbathers, children building sand castles and people playing beach sports. The bay should have been full of people swimming, scuba diving, kayaking, yachting snorkelling and all the other activities which make Kilkee bay such a hive of activity on a summer’s day. Instead all was deserted by an unnecessary bureaucratic order.
Another annoying aspect is the unthinking support Clare Council got from the two local papers. The Clare People editorial told the people of Kilkee ‘get over it ,move on’, while the Clare Champion claimed that people’s health was paramount (as though those that opposed the closure didn’t think the same). This support for the Council had nothing to do with the large amount of advertising, statutory notices, that body places in every edition.
This is the third year in a row that flawed bureaucratic decisions have impacted adversely on Kilkee. Last year it was the vandalisation of the Cliff Walk and the year before it was the removal of diving boards on bogus health and safety grounds.
What will it be next year.