Leitrim and Donegal County Councils have been commended by the EPA regarding their handling of local environmental issues.
A new report from the EPA has outlined how a small number of local authorities around the country are performing well when it comes to monitoring environmental issues, such as air, water and noise pollution.
Leitrim and Donegal County Councils are among ten that have met the required standard in 70% or more of assessments carried out by the EPA.
The others were Kildare, Meath, Fingal, Monaghan, Cavan, Dublin City, Carlow and Cork County.
That’s an increase of five more local authorities since the report was carried out at the same time last year, with Kildare the only council to achieve strong or excellent across all five air and noise categories.
That was one of the only positives of the report, however, with a number of local authorities found to be under-achieving when it comes to environmental issues.
Four of these were found to have met only 30% or less of the EPA’s standard requirements.
These were Waterford, Offaly, Kilkenny and Wexford.
Agriculture was also found to have a significant impact on water quality, with the report stating that just over half of the country’s waterways were found to be in satisfactory condition.
This was due to high levels of different nutrients being washed into rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal waters.
