Logo
Search 

Water Quality Legislation

Water Pollution Control

Flooding

Flooding from Public Sewers

Water Bye-Laws

General Overview

Ireland established a Water Quality Monitoring Programme for rivers and streams in 1971. 2,900km of river channel was monitored initially by An Foras Forbatha. This has increased to the current channel length of 13,240km, comprising of 1080 of the country’s rivers and streams monitored biennially by the E.P.A. Water Quality is determined by biological and physico-chemical analysis. The biological river quality classification system (Biotic Index) is a complex assessment of the bio-diversity of a river system. Biological monitoring generally indicates the effect of organic pollutants such as sewage and agricultural wastes and may also determine the effect of toxic pollution.

Biological monitoring is a good indicator of the long-term effects of water pollution. Physico-chemical monitoring involves the determination of the concentrations of various substances present in a water body e.g. ammonia (which may indicate water polluted by sewage matter) and heavy metals (which may result from industrial pollution) etc. The physical nature of the water body is determined using parameters such as dissolved oxygen, pH and suspended solids among others. Physico-chemical monitoring is an indication of recently occurring pollution events. It is considered beneficial to monitor biologically, physically and chemically in order to establish an overall picture of true water quality. Fingal County Council has established monitoring programmes to monitor physio-chemical aspects of water bodies in Fingal.

The most recent Water Quality report produced by the E.P.A, ‘Water Quality in Ireland 2004-2006’ indicated 71.4% of river channel to be in a satisfactory condition. 18.1% is classified as slightly polluted, 10% moderately polluted and 0.5% is seriously polluted. Since monitoring began in 1971, the overall trend has been a reduction in seriously polluted river channel throughout the country and also a recent reduction in the length of river channel experiencing slight or moderate pollution.An increase in the percentage of unpolluted river channels has also been observed.

Discharges of badly treated sewage, agricultural discharges and industrial discharges whether point or non-point are the main sources of pollution within the country. These discharges result in pollution effects such as eutrophication (the over-enrichment of water bodies), de-oxygenation and ultimately fish kills. More information is available at www.epa.ie and www.enfo.ie.