No Swimming: Famous Recreation Area Fails Sanitation Standards

On holidays, one of the common things that people think about is going on a vacation, and most of the time these trips involve swimming or spending the day at the beach. A day of relaxing and enjoying coastline sounds perfect especially during the Orangemen’s holiday in Ireland, unless polluted waters prevent residents from doing so. This could be a hassle, and this was exactly what Irish citizens felt upon finding out that they couldn't even swim in their own local beaches due to sanitation issues.

Ballyholme Beach, a popular beach in Belfast was hit with an effluent pollution incident originating from Cotton River. Environmental chiefs were first alerted of the pollution that was believed to be from a farm. Good thing that the beach owners were quickly advised of the incident.

“While there is emergency cover to investigate the incident, the DoE Marine Division labs have been closed over the holiday period this year, 2015, due to budgetary pressures. Normal service will resume on Wednesday. It will not be possible to confirm water quality until Thursday morning as samples take approximately 24 hours to confirm,” said a spokesperson for the Department of the Environment, in a report by The Belfast Telegraph.

An effluent is an outflow of gas or water, or as defined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, a “wastewater-treated or untreated that flows out of a treatment plant, sewer or industrial outfall.” A farm near Cotton River clearly did not follow regulations and as an effect, vacationers were kept from enjoying the holidays.

This could have been easily prevented if a proper wastewater system practiced bioremediation early on. Bioremediation is considered a trend in cleaning up sewage systems with the help of microorganisms that thrive and eat the contaminants. Ecosciences (OCTQB: ECEZ) , a company based in New York, manufactures a bioremediation solution called “Tank-EZE Wastewater Tablets” to prevent this particular kind of environmental catastrophe. The tablets are solid, sustained release tablets that provide active oxygen, nutrients, buffers, and safe anaerobic microorganisms to help keep wastewater systems, including farm sewage systems, running efficiently.

The effluent couldn’t come at a worse time, since it was the busiest season of the year for the resort. As a precautionary measure, the DoE advised the public to refrain from swimming or coming in contact with the water. To add insult to injury, the government was nonchalant about the whole thing.

“It is unacceptable for them to say that they will deal with it when they come back. When there is a risk to human health there should be an immediate investigation and, if possible, amelioration of the problem,” said North Down Green Party MLA Steven Agnew.

Employees of the Ballyholme Yacht Club have cancelled all their activities, including a sea swim organised by Alice Armstrong, the club’s training manager. “It is pretty severe, there will be a lot of disappointed people. Our sailing will go ahead but our capsize drills will be cancelled,” said Armstrong. Organisations have been asked to put up signs of warning about the pollution.

To contact the writer, email: vittoriohhernandez@yahoo.com