Pollution in Tymon Park affecting local swan population in south Dublin

Irish Independent

a day ago

Sinn Féin councillor Niamh Whelan told councillors that pollution is a longstanding issue for Tymon Lake, and local volunteers are worried the water quality is now affecting the swans and cygnets there.
In a response from SDCC, the authority said a water pollution inspector was sent to the park on June 9, who found water stagnating in the upstream section of the lake due to a reduced flow from the river.
The reduced water level meant that parts of the lake bed were exposed, with the remaining sections containing 'concentrated' levels of pollutants and algae as a result.
'The lake bed was sporadically disturbed by the swans allowing the now blackened silt bed to rise and become surface bound/suspended; discolouring the algae and in turn, adhering to the swan's plumage,' the report read.
However, this discolouration washed off once the swans swam in the deeper sections of the lake, it said.
The report said SDCC was 'acutely aware' of the urban pollution issues with the River Poddle, which flows into Tymon Lake.
'The council has investigated all previous pollution reports on the River Poddle, particularly in Bancroft Park where the river flow slows and discolouration of the river may be evident,' it said.
'However, the contaminant source has frequently left the drainage system, making it extremely difficult to identify the cause of the pollution.'
Senior Engineer with SDCC, Juliene Helbert, told councillors that another challenge in identifying sources of pollutants is the extensive catchment area leading into the water bodies in Tymon Park, which is 'fed into by residential and industrial areas'.
'Nature does regenerate, and it will flow through and, I suppose really, the biggest impact we can have is finding the source of the pollution and preventing further pollution,' she said.
Ms Helbert explained there were two primary water networks, the Uisce Éireann 'foul' water network and the storm water network, which is managed by the local authority.
'If we focus just on the storm water network, SDCC's part, really the contributing factors to that are in terms of residential misconnections, people washing their cars. Sudding, soaps, going down the drains, very simple things like that,' she said.
'They very quickly end up in our rivers because there's so many rivers and channels in south Dublin.'
Ms Helbert said another major cause of pollution are misconnections, where buildings or appliances are incorrectly plumbed into the storm water network rather than the foul network.
'We had an example of a dog washing scenario in a car wash, just plumbed into the wrong one, and that was causing a lot of issues,' she said.
She added that issues with people throwing paint and oils down drains were also contributing to the pollution problems, and the council would explore the idea of an education campaign to inform people of the impact such pollution has on local water bodies.
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