More than a quarter of all domestic waste water treatment systems inspected last year posed a risk to human health.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s National Inspection Plan for 2019, which is published today, found that 26% of systems were a risk to human health or our environment with a further 51% of systems failing altogether.
The report also highlights Leitrim as being one of the counties with most work to do, when it comes to upgrading septic tanks which are currently below the required EPA standards.
This National Inspection Plan examined 1,160 domestic waste water treatment systems across across the country in 2019 – but the findings are being released today.
51 per cent of the septic tanks inspected failed. Some of them have failed inspection for the last seven years.
26 percent of the systems inspected last year were deemed a risk to human health or the environment. They either had de-sludging or maintenance failures OR the systems had structural defects causing illegal discharges into streams and ditches.
Local authorities issue advisory notices requiring systems that fail inspections to be fixed.#
The Report’s league table county-by county shows that 80 percent or more of failures have been fixed in 14 local authority areas, including Donegal.
In Sligo, 73 percent of inspection failures have been addressed, but six local authorities are in the red zone. And this list includes Leitrim where just 43 percent of inspection failures over the last seven years have been fixed.
Septic tanks can contaminate water sources and household wells with harmful bacteria and viruses if they’re not built or operated properly. The report also highlights that grants of up to 5000 euro are available this year for householders to fix their systems.
