WeLL WeLL

You wouldn't believe the amount of 'hate' mail received in the editorial offices of the Coll Magazine, to the extent that this year, a special person has been appointed to deal with it, - by burning it!.

The problem seems to have arisen over a particularly tasteless piece of doggerel appearing in last year's mag., which suggested, in no uncertain terms, that the water on Coll is of a quality normally to be found exuded by toads. This, of course, - as 'Outraged' from Auchtermuchty so sagely pointed out - is not quite the case, and, in support of this contention, we detail below the less inflamatory comments kindly offered by lain MacKinnon from the local authority Dept. of Environmental Services.

"The water supplies on Coll, either public or private, originate from sources not dissimilar to other island or mainland sources. In general, the N.E. end of Coll has supplies taken from springs or surface run-off and the S.W. end has sources taken from deep wells or springs. The source being established, various methods of collection and storage are employed and anything from a concrete tank to an old whisky barrel can be found in use!

A number of water samples have been taken from Coll over the years. The private supplies have produced varying reuslts given the source of water, time of year and contamination problems but in general, can be described as being of reasonably good quality. The water can be contaminated by sheep or cattle on the ground in the vicinity of the intake point; and the quality can be affected by, say, fertislisers or other chemichals used on the ground. Results of analyses have indicated the water on Coll to be free from fertiliser type problems - i.e. nitrate levels are below maximum permissable levels. Supplies checked by this Department have required some work to bring the water up to the required stand. This has usually meant the fencing of a catchment area: the provision of a storage/settlement tank: or perhaps the replacement of supply pipework.

The parameters used by the analyst when examining water samples are based upon the EEC Directive on Water Quality to which level all supplies of water for human consumption must eventually comply. To achieve EEC standards, the supplies on Coll would probably require treatment with chlorine or ultraviolet lights. This effectively sterilises the water, removing all harmful bacteria.

It is worthy of note that in Argyll and the Islands, many of the private, untreated water supplies have a bacterial load present at all times. The local population, used to such bacterial load, are not affected in any way. However, when a visitor arrives, who may be used to a mains supply which receives full-scale treatment, he very often suffers from stomach upsets for a few days until his system adjusts."

For those of you who may be interested Iain MacKinnon has lots of useful information on general water supply requirements, methods of treatment and a list of useful addresses. He can be contacted at the Area Office, Albany Street, Oban; Tel. (0631) 64211.

If there is an obvious health problem associated with a water supply an analysis will be carried out free of charge; in other cases, you can expect to say goodbye to around £70.

So there we are then. It's not really that bad. Oh, and to Miss Dimple of Chipping Ongar, if you're reading this, we do hope the trouble clears up soon.