| Michelle Condron, Andrea McGowan & Elaine Doran entered their project in the
Intermediate Group Section in the Biological & Ecological Sciences Category at the
Esat Telecom Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition in January 1999. They won a Special
Award presented by the Marine Institute. Their teacher was Ms Jacqui Dillon. |
Bundoran’s beauty is its greatest attribute. The location of the
beach, under 100m from the town, ensures that thousands of visitors flock to Bundoran each
year. This influx of tourists during the summer leaves Bundoran open to use and abuse. Our
primary aim was to carry out a microbiological analysis of the sea water, determining its
quality, isolating the source of any pollution and providing recommendations for its
elimination.
We decided on two different sampling sites. The first was located at the centre of Main
Beach. Our second site was a stream which enters the beach after flowing through the town.
During its course the stream collects litter and animal faeces which led us to believe it
may be contaminated.
We obtained a copy of the criteria for the Blue Flag status and carried out our tests
to comply with Blue Flag guidelines.
Our first job was to detect how many coliforms, if any, 100ml of each sample contained.
This is called a presumptive test and determines whether or not the water is safe for
bathing. The standard of the seawater was generally very good, with only 43 coliforms per
100ml. The stream was not, containing 1,100 coliforms per 100ml, being in breech of the
Blue Flag guidelines.
As this test did not specify which coliforms were present, we decided to test for E-coli,
quite a topical and widely feared bacteria. We had to be extremely careful working with a
pathogen such as this. E.M.B. agar was used to determine if E-coli was present.
The colonies of bacteria on each plate revealed a green metallic sheen, typical of
E-coli. Further tests could have been carried out to confirm this – however,
time and money were restricted luxuries, and we also felt it would be too dangerous,
especially since experiments were carried out in our school lab.
We feel that, even allowing for dilution, the stream must have a considerable effect on
the bathing water quality. Although it is diverted during the summer months, it still
represents a hazard to winter surfers and swimmers.
We discovered that, for towns with a population of under 2,000, such as Bundoran, it is
legal to pump raw sewage into the sea. Unfortunately Bundoran’s huge influx of
tourists during the summer has not been taken into consideration. We were informed that
there are plans for a £50 million scheme to be put into action by the year 2005 for a
sewage treatment plant for the whole of Donegal Bay. We recommend that the proposed plant
should be installed and operational as soon as possible.
We also recommend that the stream is diverted all year round to ensure high quality
recreational amenities in Bundoran in the future.
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