Faulty septic tanks pose a serious risk to both human health and the environment.
That’s according to the Environmental Protection Agency, which released it’s annual report today.
More than half the number of tanks inspected last year failed due to structural defects or low maintenance.
Across the year 27 inspections were required across Kilkenny.
Just 14 were carried out – 43% of these failed, with 79% fixed by the end of the year.
Carlow fared a little better – 15 inspections were deemed necessary there but 20 were carried out with a quarter failing but 86% were fixed by year end.
The EPA’s Programme Manager Noel Byrne says people need to be responsible for monitoring their own systems:
“At the end of 2021 there was over 500 failed septic tanks that had gone on unresolved for more than two years. But of these, half of those sewage was ponding on the gardens or was discharging into a nearby stream. These streams go on and flow through rural communities so its totally unacceptable to have something like that happening and not to actually get it fixed”
