The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the competent authority for granting and enforcing Industrial Emissions (IE) licences for specified industrial and agriculture activities listed in the First Schedule to the Environmental Protection Agency Act 1992 as amended.  The categories of industry coming within the scope of Industrial Emissions licensing are: Minerals and Other Materials. Energy....

The Annual Environmental Report (AER) is a requirement for all EPA licensed facilities.  The content of the AER should give a concise summary of the environmental performance of the site for the previous reporting year as well as a record of on-going improvements on the licensed site.  The EPA have published a Draft AER Guidance...

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) current Strategic Plan 2013-2015, Working with Others for a Better Environment sets out how a clean, healthy and well protected environment lies at the heart of economic recovery. The EPA is seeking the views of the public on it’s draft strategy 2016-2020. The 2016 – 2020 builds on the need for sustainability and...

7 July 2015 is the deadline for Industrial Emissions Licences for existing installations operating newly prescribed activities as presented in the First Schedule of EPA Acts 1992-2013 -V2. Section 7.8 of the revised first schedule of the EPA Act now includes the requirement for the following installations to be processed where the treatment and processing,...

On 1st January 2014, Irish Water became the new national water utility that has the responsibility for the delivery of public water and waste water services, taking over the role that was previously held by Local Authorities. Irish Water is the new national water utility responsible for the operation of public water services including management...

The EPA have published new guidance which addresses direct discharges to groundwater from point sources of potential pollution. It supplements the earlier report published by the EPA in 2011 entitled “Guidance on the Authorisation of Discharges to Groundwater” which focused on the technical assessment of indirect discharges to groundwater. The new guidance has the following primary objectives:...

On 1st January 2014 Irish Water became responsible for the production, distribution and monitoring of drinking water from over 1000 public water supplies, serving 82.0% of the population. The remainder of the population is supplied by group water schemes (6.6%), small private supplies (0.8%) and private wells (10.6%) that are exempt under the Regulations.  Responsibility for the water quality rests with...

EPA are currently in the final stages of preparing their 2014 Research call. This year’s call will be worth approximately €7 million, split between the Climate, Water and Sustainability pillars. There will also be a seperate Green Enterprise call worth approximately €200,000.  EPA Research Call 2014 Provisional dates: Call opens: 27 June 2014 Applicant Deadline: 5 August...

The EPA estimate  that 30% of private wells in Ireland are contaminated by E. coli arising from animal or human waste. HSE reports a growing number of cases of VTEC – a particularly nasty form of E.coli. Analysis of cases finds that patients are up to four times more likely to have consumed untreated water...

The EPA have published their Strategic Plan for 2013 – 2015.  The plan sets out the priority actions that the EPA will take between now and 2015 in its role as environmental regulator, knowledge provider and advocate for the environment. Clean Water, Preventing Environmental Damage, providing Accessible Information and influencing Behavioural Change are four of the nine...