Urgent action needed to improve private drinking water quality, EPA warns

Private drinking water quality distributed through group schemes in rural areas and private wells has not improved in recent years despite the availability of public funding to support upgrades to supplies, says the EPA.

Private drinking water quality is not as good as public water quality, which is an ongoing risk to public health, the agency warns in its Drinking Water Quality in Private Group Schemes and Small Private Supplies report for 2022.

The total number of small private supplies remains unknown despite a requirement that owners register with their local authority, it adds, though 84 per cent of registered small private supplies were monitored in 2022 compared with 75 per cent in 2021.

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Local authorities are required to monitor registered supplies annually but the EPA recommends that this should be legally required.

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Drinking water is provided to about 200,000 people across rural communities by more than 380 registered group water schemes. Most private wells, however, of which there are about 180,000 in the country, are not regulated under drinking water regulations, and the quality of these supplies is not assessed in the EPA report.

About 720,000 people – almost two out of every 10 people in Ireland – get their water from a private supply. Many assume their private well water is safe to drink and do not treat it or get it tested.

In addition, a lot of rural commercial and public activities such as schools, crèches, nursing homes, pubs and restaurants have their own drinking water wells, the EPA highlights. There are only 1,700 small private supplies registered with local authorities.

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Meeting standards for E.coli bacteria is a basic requirement in the provision of safe drinking water. In 2022, 14 private group schemes were found to have E.coli contamination, indicating the water supply has not been properly disinfected. “The failure of these disinfection systems put the health of approximately 5,500 people that use these drinking water supplies at risk.”

In 2022, 16 private group schemes, supplying 14,000 people, failed the standard for trihalomethanes (THMs), which are formed when natural organic matter in the water source, such as vegetation, reacts with chlorine used in disinfection of supplies. Long-term exposure to THMs poses a health risk.

THM levels should comply with the drinking water quality standards, while ensuring the water is fully disinfected. Actions to prevent THM failures need to be prioritised by suppliers to protect public health, the EPA report adds.

Director of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Enforcement, Dr Tom Ryan, said: “It is a local public health concern that private drinking water quality hasn’t improved in recent years despite the availability of public funding to support upgrades to water supplies.

“In addition, as there is no legal requirement to register private drinking water supplies, it is not possible to quantify the full extent of the risk to public health. The registration of private supplies needs to become a legally enforceable obligation on the supplier.”

[ Risks to public health in private drinking water supplies not being tackled, EPA warns ]

A review of the rural water sector completed in January 2023 on behalf of the Department of Local Government identified issues that needed to be addressed to improve drinking water compliance and reduce public health risk in private water supplies.

It urged all private water supplies to be registered, and noted access to funding for water quality improvements varied greatly across local authorities, resulting in available funding not being used. It also concluded measures were needed to improve management at underperforming private group schemes.

Welcoming the department’s rural water sector review, Noel Byrne, programme manager of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Enforcement, said: “[It] has highlighted several issues that are contributing to poor water quality in private supplies. It is crucial that these issues relating to registration, funding and management are addressed so that private water supplies meet required standards and public health is protected.”

The EPA report is available on its website at epa.ie