Rea's Wood bathing water quality is rated 'poor'

OVER a year since the blue-green algae crisis in Lough Neagh, the bathing water at Rea’s Wood in Antrim has been rated as being of ‘poor’ quality.

Over lockdown, the area at the local loughshore became hugely popular and a swimming group was even set up.

For the second year the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), who manage the bathing water programme, undertook sampling at ‘Candidate’ bathing waters that had been recommended as bathing sites by the Bathing Water Review conducted by the Department in 2022/2023.

This included Northern Ireland’s first Inland Bathing Water at Rea’s Wood in Antrim.

The seven ‘Candidate’ bathing waters were measured against the standards for faecal indicator organisms; one was classified as ‘Excellent’, two as ‘Good’, three at Sufficient and one - Rea’s Wood - failed to meet the minimum standards.

DAERA Minister Andrew Muir said: “Even with the wet summer and poor weather it is very encouraging to see so many of Northern Ireland’s bathing waters maintaining high standards for water quality. The addition of another year’s data has improved the classifications at some of the candidate sites. However, a full set of four years is required to classify these with confidence.

“Unfortunately, as with 2023, this season was also dominated by coverage of the blue-green algae events in Lough Neagh, impacting the candidate site at Rea’s Wood in Antrim.

“I am committed to tackling the issues and have published an Action Plan to clean up Lough Neagh and have already delivered on a number of the commitments. Part of this is to ensure clearer messaging to the public about the risks and this year for the first time we implemented the Inter-Agency Monitoring Protocol for Blue Green algae that has helped inform and advise bathing water users.

“Our bathing waters are a huge asset to Northern Ireland, valued by locals and visitors alike, and my Department will continue to work with the agriculture sector, NI Water and bathing water operators to manage risks to water quality and strive for improvements.”

The bathing water quality prediction app ‘Swim NI’ provided daily forecasts of bathing water quality at six beaches, enabling bathers to make an informed choice. The project is a collaboration between scientists at the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute and communications partner Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful and is a continuation of work developed under the EU Interreg VA SWIM project.

Last year, the waters off Rea’s Wood were officially designated as a ‘bathing water site’ by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs.

The designation, means that the water must meet ‘stringent’ quality standards.

The Bathing Water Review incorporated a public consultation which saw 352 nominations for 101 proposed new bathing water sites, including inland water sites.

Earlier this year, councillors were wary about undertaking statutory responsibilities of Bathing Water Operator for Rea’s Wood at Lough Neagh in Antrim.

During the January Operations Committee meeting, it was recommended that the Council confirm to the Department of Agriculture, Environment, and Rural Affairs (DAERA) its intention to undertake the statutory responsibilities of Bathing Water Operator at Rea’s Wood.

However, members requested that the item be deferred for further consideration due to prevalent issues related to Blue Green Algae during the summer months of the past year.

Additionally, members raised concerns within the Department’s data that the site’s water quality was determined to be poor outside of the issues related to the algae.

DAERA had earlier delivered a presentation to senior officers of those council areas that border the Lough, addressing the issues of Blue Green Algae and outlining ongoing actions to prevent its recurrence.

A report before the committee said: “Regarding the general water quality, notwithstanding the algae, it should be noted, with the enclosed correspondence, that the ‘poor’ rating has been distorted due to one particularly high reading, and that the statistical assessment is based on a four-year dataset.

“However, as a candidate water, only one year’s data is available for Rea’s Wood.”