The water quality of our lakes, rivers and canals continues to decline.
The EPA’s latest report shows 48% of our surface waters are in an “unsatisfactory ecological condition”.
Improvements were recorded in areas where targeted action was taken, but we’re on track to miss our national and EU goal of restoring all waters to good or better status by 2027.
Dr. Eimear Cotter, Director of the EPA’s Office of Evidence and Assessment, says there are a number of causes, commenting; “It isn’t any one particular sector and this is what makes it difficult and challenging, agriculture is the most prevalent pressure, it impacts on about a thousand water bodies around the country, after we have physical alterations, forestry operations and also discharges from urban waste water, so really the impact on the environment is nutrient levels are too high, there’s too much nitrogen, too much phosphorus”.
The water bodies with the highest dissolved inorganic nitrogen concentration include two in County Kilkenny; Upper Barrow Estuary (4.8 mg N/l) and Barrow Nore Estuary Upper (4.2 mg/l). Read the report in full here or see some of the findings below.
