Limerick County Council has achieved ISO 24512:2007 certification for its management of the Kilmallock Water Treatment Scheme, which serves 2,500 customers in south County Limerick.  The standard is awarded by the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI), the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) member body for the Republic of Ireland.  ECOS Environmental Consultants Limited

REACH is the European Community Regulation on chemicals and their safe use (EC 1907/2006). It deals with the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemical substances. The law entered into force on 1 June 2007. The REACH Regulation places greater responsibility on industry to manage the risks from chemicals and to provide safety information on the...

The Eco-innovation Action Plan (EcoAP ) comprises seven actions to help build stronger and more stable market demand for eco-innovation. These actions focus particularly on market supply and demand, on research and industry, and on policy and financial instruments.  They will bring together stakeholders, the private and public sectors, and the European Commission. Action 1. Environmental...

Directive 2006/118/EC  on the protection of groundwater against pollution and deterioration was implemented in Ireland by S.I. No.9 of 2010 – European Communities Environmental Objectives (Groundwater) Regulations, 2010. The directive establishes a regime which sets underground water quality standards and introduces measures to prevent or limit inputs of pollutants into groundwater. The directive establishes quality criteria that takes...

Strategic Environmental Assessment in Ireland (SEA) is the process by which environmental considerations are integrated into Plans and Programmes across a broad range of sectors including energy, fisheries, industry, telecommunications, water and land use. A review of SEA, commissioned by the EPA, has found that: SEA is providing a vital tool for environmental protection in...

The European Commission’s environment department has launched the first of four consultations on new bans under the RoHS directive that deals with hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment. This is the start of a consultation process that will end in November 2013 with the publication of a final report on a methodology to identify...

Supports for business and institutions in the development and implementation of Green Business strategies are available from a range of state agencies in Ireland. This guide provides a brief overview of services and supports available from the four principal agencies active in this area: the environmental Protection Agency, the Sustainable Energy Authrority of Ireland, Enterprise...

The EPA have launched the new ALDER/EDEN web portal for Licensees and Local Authorities. The purpose of ALDER to remove the need for paper based communications for many activities and will benefit both licensees and the EPA. The functionality of the ALDER online web portal will be developed and rolled out in phases. The first...

The European Investment Bank is providing a €200m loan to Ireland’s Water Service Investment Programme (WSIP) to support 23 water investment projects across Ireland. The projects include provision of new water mains, water and wastewater treatment facilities and reservoirs, as well as measures to improve water conservation. The responsibility for water services delivery is moving...

The Department of Environment, Community and Local Government (DoECLG) has published the Water Services (Amendment) Act 2012 to regulate wastewater discharges from all homes that are not connected to the public sewer network. This is as a result of a European Court of Justice (ECJ) judgment made against Ireland in 2009 (Case C-188/08) in relation to...