EPA report shows unacceptable delays in the elimination of raw sewage

A recent report revealed a risk to the health of occupants in Ireland, and the environment of the country, as report shows repeated delays in the elimination of raw sewage as unacceptable. 

Released on 13 November 2019, the Environment Protection Agency's (EPA) report on Urban Waste Water Treatment in 2018 has shown that there have actually been some improvements in wastewater treatment throughout the past year, such as the elimination of discharges of raw sewage completely from two different areas. Unfortunately, with this victory comes with certain issues - the pace that Irish Water is working to fix the legacy of deficiencies in Ireland's wastewater treatment is too slow - in fact, many areas continue to release inadequately treated wastewater into the environment - even today, raw sewage from 36 towns and villages is still released into coastal waters and rivers. 

Looking to comment on the report, Dr Tom Ryan, the Director of the EPA's Office of Environmental Enforcement has said: "Inadequately treated wastewater can pollute our environment and is a risk to people's health. We are seeing repeated delays in providing treatment for many areas and it is not acceptable that 13 towns and villages will still have no wastewater treatment by the end of 2021." Adding that, "Irish water must speed up its delivery of key infrastructure."

The Programme Manager of the EPA's Office of Environmental Enforcement, Mr Andy Fanning, has stated: "The underlying problem in many cases is a lack of adequate treatment infrastructure. This is a legacy issue which must be solved by investment in new treatment systems." He believes that some towns already have the necessary treatment in place, and still did not perform as well as they should have - he insists that Irish Water is required to continue improving how it both operates and maintains wastewater treatment systems in order to get the best performance possible from them. 

The report shows that:

• wastewater treatment at 21 of Ireland's 169 large towns and cities failed to meet the national and European standards that are set to protect the environment (this is down 28 from the previous year);
• every day, and without treatment, sewage from the equivalent of 77,000 people in 36 towns and villages is released into the environment;
• the pace of improvements that are needed to protect both the environment and public health is just too slow.

For more information, see:

• Urban Waste Water Treatment in 2018.