1. Safeguarding Drinking Water Supplies Environmental Protection Agency
Aoife Loughnane
Inspector
Office of Environmental Enforcement
Environmental Protection Agency
22nd June 2017

3. Drinking Water Supply Types
Supplier / Supplying
No. of Supplies
Population (%)
Supervisory Authority
Public Water Supplies
Irish Water
904
88.8
EPA
Public Group Water Schemes
Local Group
456
1.7
Local Authorities
Private Group Schemes
409
4.1
Small Private Supplies
Commercial / public activity
1,903
1.0
Exempted Supplies
Individual supplier
170,000*
4.4
Exempted
* Estimated number of private wells or boreholes
2016 figures provisional

4. Public water supplies with E.coli
2016 figures provisional

5. DW Quality Improvements in Public Supplies (No. of samples exceeding)
2016 figures provisional

6. THMs & E.coli in Public Supplies (No. of supplies with exceedances)
2016 figures provisional

7. Population affected by Boil Water Notices

8. Current Boil Water Notices
9 BWNs affecting a population of 4,014
Scheme Name
Local Authority Area
Population affected
Parameter Description
Ballinlough / Loughglynn
Roscommon
3,427
Cryptosporidium
Fintown
Donegal
373
Dundrum
Tipperary
100
E. coli
Ardcarraig Clogherinkoe
Kildare 80
E.coli

9. Risk Based Enforcement
EPA Remedial Action List (RAL)
90 supplies serving 742,784 people
Inadequate treatment for Cryptosporidium
Inadequate disinfection
Failed to meet E.coli / Enterococci standard
Elevated levels of THMs
Excessive levels of aluminium
Poor turbidity removal
EPA audit observations – treatment & management issues
Supplies identified by the HSE
Irish Water has action programmes for all RAL supplies
RAL is reactive - EPA seeks move from RAL driven to Drinking Water Safety Plan driven prioritisation

10. RAL by number of supplies

12. Enforcement Priorities in Drinking Water
Eliminate long-term Boil water notices
Implement action programmes for all supplies on the Remedial Action List
Protect sources and abstraction points
Progress and complete Drinking Water Safety Plans
National Lead Strategy
Assess public buildings for action
Encourage increased replacement of private side lead

13. National Strategies to Safeguard Drinking Water Quality
Lead
THMs
Disinfection
Pesticides
Drinking Water Safety Plans

14. Pesticides in Drinking Water
467 exceedances affecting 91 supplies
EPA investigation files: 54 supplies serving 904,000 people
Irish Water’s National Pesticides Strategy due in Q3 2017

15. Pesticides in Drinking Water
Key stakeholders & legislative context
Sustainable Use of Pesticides Directive
[DAFM]
Water Framework Directive
[EPA / LAWCO]
Drinking Water Directive
[Irish Water /EPA]
DAFM
LAWCO
EPA
NFGWS
CCMA
Teagasc
HSE
ICMSA
IFA
APHA
FARM
Irish Water
MCPA 83 % of all failures
Pesticides in Drinking Water
Pesticides in Drinking Water
National Pesticides and Drinking Water Action Group

16. Drinking Water Safety Plans

17. Regulated Private Water Supplies
Private Water Supplies with E. coli
Poor monitoring: 37% not monitored for E.coli
Consistently poorer water quality than public supplies
Review of Local Authority’s Service Delivery for Rural Water
Project purpose: to identify a model which will achieve efficiencies & improved service delivery to the Rural Water Sector.
2016 figures provisional

18. Private / Household Wells
Up to 30% contaminated by E.coli
Ireland has highest incidence of VTEC infection in Europe
VTEC patients are up to 4 times more likely to have consumed untreated private water
Greater awareness & action needed to protect water quality in private wells
2016 figures provisional

19. Key Challenges Drinking Water quality
THMs & pesticides compliance is low
Protection of Drinking Water sources & abstraction points
WFD requirement for Drinking Water Protected Areas
Inferior water quality in private supplies

20. Future Direction DWSPs European context Private supplies
RAL phase-out and use of DWSPs to identify improvement needs
European context
EU infringement proceedings on THMs
Revised Drinking Water Directive Annexes to be transposed in late 2017
Revision of Drinking Water Directive
Private supplies
Changes to the service delivery model for Rural Water

21. Thank you