Ireland’s Environmental Protection Agency has said it expects drinking water to comply with EU standards by 2020 - 16 years after the original compliance deadline.

The EPA Drinking Water Report 2017, released today, shows that the quality of drinking water in public supplies remains high, although it warned that the country must continue to invest in and improve the security of supplies in order to comply with drinking water health standards and avoid water restrictions.

The EPA said that drinking water testing throughout 2017 confirmed a very high level of compliance with microbiological and chemical standards, indicating that most water supplies are safe.

• Monitoring of public drinking water in Ireland shows that:
• 99.9% of samples comply with the microbiological standards
• 99.6% of samples comply with the chemical standards
• However, there are 72 “at risk” supplies on the EPA Remedial Action List:
• 52 of these supplies have elevated levels of trihalomethanes
• 17 of these supplies lack adequate treatment to prevent Cryptosporidium entering the water supply.
• Remedial works for 38 of these supplies are due to be complete by the end of 2018

Irish Water completed remedial works at 33 supplies during 2017. The EPA said that where a new boil water notice had to be issued in 2017, Irish Water had acted quickly to ensure that the notice was in place for as short as time as possible.

E. coli failures detected under the annual monitoring returns increased slightly in 2017, although the overall trend of E. coli failures has been decreasing since 2007.

Four of the failures were related to problems with the disinfection treatment - Irish Water’s National Disinfection Strategy is currently addressing deficiencies in disinfection across all public water supplies. The report says it is important that Irish Water continue to make improvements under the strategy.

Trihalomethanes, lead and pesticides are the most significant issues for chemical compliance in public water supplies.

The EPA has identified a number priority issues in the report, together with warning that “continued and sustained investment in Ireland’s public water sector will be essential if Irish Water are to complete works to remove all 77 supplies from the Remedial Action List”

Commenting on the report, Mr Gerard O’Leary, Director of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Enforcement said,

“Irish Water plans to have all public drinking water supplies compliant with existing EU public health standards by the end of 2020. These standards came into force 16 years ago. There are currently 72 supplies where infrastructure is needed to achieve this goal. Continued investment will be required to achieve compliance with current public health standards and new standards expected to be in place by 2020.”

Darragh Page, Programme Manager, EPA’s Office of Environmental Enforcement, commented on the downward trend in E. coli contamination in drinking water:

“The incidence of E. coli in public water supplies has been on a downward trend for the past ten years. There was a slight increase in E. coli detections in 2017, serving as a reminder that we need to remain vigilant against E. coli in drinking water. The best way to ensure our drinking water is free of E. coli is by having a robust disinfection system in place with good checks and controls on the treatment process.”

The EPA has identified the following priorities for Irish Water to address on a national level to protect and improve public water supplies:

• Prevention of long term boil water notices by providing robust disinfection systems;
• Minimising harmful disinfection by-products such as Trihalomethanes (THM) by providing treatment that adequately removes organic matter in the water (THM pre-cursors);
• Eliminating lead from drinking water networks;
• Preventing pesticides from entering drinking water sources;
• Managing risks to public water supplies by adopting Drinking Water Safety Plans for all supplies;
• Progressing action programmes for all Remedial Action List (RAL) schemes.

Click here to download the EPA Drinking Water Report 2017 and the complete list of public water supplies currently on the Remedial Action List (RAL) - including details of the proposed remedial measures and associated timeframes