County Council concerned at reports of diving in Lough Salt

Donegal County Council says it is extremely concerned about the recent reports in the media on diving activity in the waters of Lough Salt for recreational reasons, and in particular the retrieval of artefact’s from the bottom of the lake.
The council Lough Salt is one of the main sources of drinking water for Letterkenny and its environs, and the council says any threat to the quality of the water will be taken very seriously.
Recently it emerged that two Donegal based divers seeking specialist deep sea certification were diving for rare golf balls in Lough Salt as part of their training process.
In a statement last evening, Donegal County Council warned the publicity that has recently been in the media has been of a nature which could potentially attract further use of the lake as a source of such recreational diving, which to date has not been the case.
The Council says as a drinking water source Lough Salt is a protected water body under the Water Framework Directive and the Council will take all measures necessary within its powers to prevent further use of this lake for such recreational use.
It should also be noted that Lough Salt is a deep lake and diving in the lake requires the use of specialist diving equipment operated by divers trained and capable of using such equipment.
The statement concludes the only situation that the Council will consider in terms of granting permission to dive in Lough Salt will be in relation to emergency contingency planning in order to develop a planned response to an accident which results in a recovery operation from the waters of the lake.