The founding legislation for the EPA (the Environmental Protection Agency Act 1992) required that the Environmental Protection Agency ‘ensures, in so far as is practicable, that a proper balance is achieved between the need to protect the environment (and the cost of such protection) and the need for infrastructural, economic and social progress’ [Section 52(2) of the...

Irish Water will be established as a wholly owned public water utility and will remain in public ownership. In just twenty years, it is anticipated that global demand for water will be forty percent higher than it is today so Ireland’s valuable water resources play a vital role in enhancing Ireland’s competitiveness and supporting water-dependent...

Regulation 7 of the Groundwater Regulations states that “Point source discharges and diffuse sources liable to cause groundwater pollution shall be controlled so as to prevent or limit the input of pollutants into groundwater”. This ‘prevent or limit’ objective is the core groundwater quality objective.  In principle, ‘prevent or limit’ measures are the first line...

Regulation 4 of the Groundwater Regulations (S.I. No. 9 of 2010) places a duty on public authorities to promote compliance with the requirements of the regulations and to take all reasonable steps to: prevent or limit the input of pollutants into groundwater prevent the deterioration of the status of all bodies of groundwater protect, enhance...

Due to the comprehensive nature of the European Communities Environmental Objectives (Groundwater) Regulations, 2010 (S.I. No. 9 of 2010) (Groundwater Regulations), and their relation to the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) (WFD) and the Groundwater Directive (2006/118/EC) (GWD), a consistent approach towards technical assessment is needed. The EPA have published guidance on a framework for the processes,...

The technical assessment of a discharge to groundwater activity is risk-based and receptor-focussed. The assessment  follows the source-pathway-receptor model which underpins all groundwater protection schemes in Ireland as well as the Water Framework Directive on which the Groundwater Regulations are based. Every discharge activity carries a degree of risk.  The challenge lies in differentiating between...