Pesticides found in local drinking water

Latest figures reveal that householders in the Mid Ulster area may have been affected after it was discovered that pesticides had contaminated drinking water on three occasions.

The contamination incidents, which occurred in May, June and September of 2015 at the Killyhevlin and Moyola Water Treatment Works, were revealed at April’s monthly meeting of the Mid Ulster Council Environmental Committee.

In addition, there were three events categorised as minor and seven events categorised as not significant affecting the Mid Ulster area.

Commenting on the 20th Annual Report on the Quality of Drinking Water in Northern Ireland, a council officer said of the pollution incidents: “Whilst some such events relate to the Mid Ulster Area, it should be noted there were no serious events recorded in the Mid Ulster area.”

A spokesperson for NI Water said a there was no health risk associated with the level of MCPA detected.

“All results were well below the Health Notification Value (HNV) for MCPA”, she said.

“The incidents reported in the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) Drinking Water Quality report were simply highlighting a slight exceedance in MCPA which is set at 0.1 micrograms per litre.

“Work was undertaken at both the Killyhevlin and Moyola Water Treatment Works in order to resolve these issues and as such, no further exceedances have occurred.”