The water quality in the River Flesk in Killarney is of a good standard according to data collected at two monitoring stations, a meeting of Killarney Municipal District Council has been assured.
Raiding the issue, Cllr John O’Donoghue said given that it’s the largest river within the municipal district, it was important to receive an update on the quality of the river where it enters the Lakes of Killarney and further upstream in Glenflesk.
He was told that Kerry County Council’s laboratory staff carry out regular physio-sampling of the main surface water inputs to Lough Leane. Two of the monitoring stations are located at the Flesk Bridge in Killarney and there is another at the ford north east of Faghcullia near Glenflesk.
Analysis of the nutrient indicators data from the past two years shows overall good water quality status at all three sites, with all phosphate results less than 0.025 mg/L and average nitrate concentrations less than 4 mg/L NO3, both of which denote high water quality status.
“Biological monitoring is carried out by the Environment Protection Agency on the Flesk River as part of a three-year rolling programme. Biological monitoring is generally seen as an indicator of the overall longer-term quality status of a waterbody,” council officials said.
The current data denotes good water quality status, with Q4 ratings at Flesk Bridge and for the section upstream of Glenflesk.
In addition, based on data from 2023, Lough Leane into which the Flesk flows is currently classified as mesotrophic, which denotes good quality status.
Cllr Niall Kelleher said, however, that when national standards on the quality of water is taken into account what is going into the Lakes of Killarney from the River Flesk and what’s coming out from the River Laune don’t add up.
“We need a full assessment,” he insisted.
KillarneyToday.com: Reaching thousands of readers every day. To advertise call 087-2229761 or email news@killarneytoday.com
