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

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

Public water supplies with E.coli 2016 figures provisional

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

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

Population affected by Boil Water Notices

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

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

RAL by number of supplies

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

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

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

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

Drinking Water Safety Plans

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

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

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

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

Thank you