‘We swim with our faces out of the water’: how Lough Derg’s algal bloom affects locals

Fiona Ward and Orna Cooke have been cold water swimming in Lough Derg at Twomilegate, just north of Killaloe in Co Clare for the past eight years.Rain, wind or snow, they never miss an early morning dip. The only time they are forced to stay out of the water is at the warmest time of the year when a blue-green algae on the surface makes swimming dangerous.Over the past five to seven years the presence of the algae has become a regular summer time occurrence on Lough Derg, the third largest lake on the island of Ireland that borders Clare, Galway and Tipperary.READ MOREThis year’s bloom, which appeared after one of the driest and warmest summers on record, is the largest ever seen on the lake, and has prompted swimming restrictions from both Tipperary and Clare county councils.Orna Cooke and Fiona Ward have been swimming in Lough Derg for more than ten years and have seen a noticeable increase in algal blooms over the last three years. Photograph: Enda O'Dowd/The Irish Times “During recent summers there has always been some bit of bloom there, particularly when the temperatures are high, but over the years we have noticed more of it and it is lasting a little longer each year,” says Ward.“We tend to swim with our faces out of the water when there is any algae. Or maybe just have a very quick dip or sometimes we make the decision as a group not to get in at all.”A number of swimmers in the Twomilegate group have reported skin irritation and sinus issues after swimming when there is an algal bloom.“Sometimes we get algae in our togs and we can get an allergic reaction, that does happen sometimes and it is a bit alarming. There can be a sinus reaction, a respiratory reaction. It is very real,” says Cooke. “I think [besides the impact on swimmers] we are really concerned with the quality of the water for everybody. It is a really big, urgent concern. “As swimmers, yes, this affects us, but we still swim. We are concerned, but we feel that this is something that can be tackled. We can make this better.”Tony O’Brien’s relationship with Lough Derg and the river Shannon began almost 50 years ago when as a teenager he spent his summer holidays working as a crew member for a boat hire company.Raised within sight of the water in Killaloe, he believes one thing very strongly: the lake is changing and not for the better.Cllr Tony O'Brien believes not enough is being done to protect Lough Derg from algal blooms. Photograph: Enda O'Dowd/The Irish Times “I have a long association with the river and I can see that it has changed. The blooms have been going for a number of years, particularly during times of low levels of water,” says O’Brien, who is a Fianna Fáil councillor on Clare County Council.“When it comes, we don’t go swimming in it because it may be unsafe. It is a huge concern. We need to establish what is the cause of it, why it is happening.“We have local authorities on both sides of the lake issuing precautionary notices not to swim in the water, not to use this great natural resource because of this blue algal bloom.“If we don’t address this problem it will have a huge impact on the development of our local area.”[ Polish chocolatier in Clare: ‘There’s something very special about Irish people’Opens in new window ]Algal blooms are usually triggered by a combination of high phosphorus and nitrogen levels in water and high temperatures.There are a number of ways in which excess phosphorus and nitrogen can enter Irish rivers including run off from farm fertilisers, nutrients being flushed from soil during clear-felling of forestry as well as from sewage treatment plants and septic tanks.Drought conditions also contribute to the severity of the blooms as lower water levels result in a higher concentration of nutrients and higher water temperature.O’Brien says when the weather is hot, the condition of the water deteriorates with the amount of nitrates and phosphates ending up in there.“There are a lot of factors that we know about. But low water levels, lack of flow and a bit of heat, that is the perfect storm for it,” he says.“This is forecast to get even more extreme as we go along because of climate change.”Mike Quinlivan has been fishing on Lough Derg for more than 30 years. Originally from Clare, he now lives across the bridge in Ballina, Co Tipperary and believes that a number of fish species have become extinct from the lake in recent years.Fisherman Mike Quinlivan has fished Lough Derg for almost 65 years and has noticed an increase in pollution in the lake in recent years. Photograph: Enda O'Dowd/The Irish Times “Over my lifetime I have seen a major deterioration in the water quality. It’s very sad. The whole environment is being degraded,” he says.“I think the people making decisions [which impact on water quality] don’t seem to see the results of their decision on the ground. “I still go out and try to do a bit of fishing. In the past this was mainly a trout fishery and 100 years ago this was the prime salmon fishery in the world but that has all changed.“There is still fishing going on, there is still some trout but a couple of species of fish have gone. We had a population of arctic char here once, for example, but we haven’t seen them for 25 years.“The blue-green algae can be harmful. The algae uses up all the oxygen and the fish need the oxygen, so if there is a lot of bloom and high temperature the fish will die.”Ballina woman Kay Mullane help establish the river Shannon Environmental Protection Alliance in 2013 in response to the multibillion euro plans to pump water from the Shannon to be used as drinking water in Dublin.She believes that taking water from the Shannon at the Parteen Basin will make the annual algal blooms on Lough Derg even worse.Kay Mullane has been living in Killaloe for almost 40 years and has seen an increase in algal blooms on Lough Derg. Photograph: Enda O'Dowd/The Irish Times “The algal bloom is all over Lough Derg and it does have effects for health, tourism and the recreational industry,” she says.“When the levels drop, the water quality will drop even more. If you are going to be abstracting 330 million litres a day, obviously that is going to be an issue.“Uisce Éireann says it’s just going to be 2 per cent, which I think has been a really clever marketing ploy for them.“It doesn’t seem like a lot, but it is 2 per cent of the yearly average. So when there is a drought situation, and there isn’t enough water, we have done calculation which suggest it will be about 35 per cent to 50 per cent of the available water.”There are so many issues with the water in the Shannon that locals wonder, “why the people of Dublin would want it?”“There is then the cost of treating it and bringing it a hundred miles to Dublin where much of it will be lost to leaks,” she says.A spokesperson from Uisce Éireann says it is “inaccurate and misleading” to suggest that discharges from waste water treatment plants are a “significant contributing factor” to the recent algal bloom on Lough Derg.“According to EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] research on algal blooms in Irish lakes, agriculture is the most significant pressure, impacting 60 per cent of the 35 at-risk water bodies within the Lower Shannon and Mulkear catchment, followed by 26 per cent being impacted by hydromorphological pressures and 11 per cent by forestry,” said a spokesperson. Hydromorphological relates to the physical structure of the river and how human interference affects habitats and water flows.The spokesperson says that in the abstraction of water for public drinking supplies, a range of raw water quality conditions, including algal blooms, can affect water supplies.“These are managed effectively through monitoring, risk assessment and advanced water treatment to ensure strict EU drinking water standards are met and there is no impact on the safety of drinking water supplies,” the spokesperson says.“This would similarly be the case with any abstraction from the Parteen Basin for drinking water supplies.”[ Lough Derg ‘getting worse’ after public advisory issued over algal bloomOpens in new window ]