Critical Evaluation of Current Environmental Legislation and Regulation in Ireland and its

Impact on Water Quality and Usage in Ireland

The quality of Irish Water is among the best in Europe, however there are many
points that need to be improved so that all sources have a satisfactory level, as well as
the approach to protect the sources that are already in good condition. The evaluation of
the environmental protection agency of 2010-2012 showed that 48% of rivers and 57% of
lakes were harmed. (Environmental Protection Agency, 2015)
The Water Framework Directive (Environmental Protection Agency, 2012) is an
initiative that aims to improve water quality throughout the European Union. Among its
main objectives are: to protect from contamination all high quality sources, prevent
further deterioration from all sources and restore polluted surface and ground sources
until 2015. But even if it is said that European Union policy should be more adaptable
and flexible in order to address more complex challenges and global context.
(Environmental Protection Agency, 2012) To achieve the satisfactory condition for the
48% of rivers and 57% of lakes, the government requires an action more significant and
directed. In addition, it is required to aim to the health of aquatic ecosystems and also
concern that the public health is also being taken care. (Environmental Protection
Agency, 2015)
Currently there is a monitoring program of the Irish environmental water, covering
the assessment of the condition of groundwater, rivers, canals, lakes, transitional and
coastal waters, with a detailed report published every three years. (Environmental
Protection Agency, 2015) The future challenge will be to change administrative measures
in order to avoid the increase of pollutants in water, as well as continued reductions of
these pollutants to levels that are not harmful. A recent document published
(Department of Environment, Community and Local Government, 2011) highlighted the
importance of the sector to the economy and the need to manage resources sustainably
to support economic growth and competitiveness. The document transpired the
Government's intention to adopt a national approach to water and to improve efficiency
costs associated with its delivery. Further observations were made on the introduction of
water metering and the collection of taxes for its use (Environmental Protection Agency,
2012). However, the population seems dissatisfied with the proposal, and afraid of the
future the water of Ireland would be privatized, and has made protests against the
creation of such taxes.
Specifying each type of water supply, only 1% of groundwater sources are in poor
chemical status, those who are in this situation have high levels of phosphorus or due to
consecutive contamination of mining and industrial development. Among the rivers, 53%
of the individuals were in satisfactory environmental status, the two most impactful
causes of river pollution are agriculture and municipal sewage sources. Overall, 43% of
the assessed lakes were attributed to high quality and good water, and another 57%
were attributed to moderate or bad. (Environmental Protection Agency, 2015)
An important parameter evaluated in recent studies is the number of dead fish
due to environmental pollution, which fell to 70 in 2010-2012 to 235 in the 1980s
(Environmental Protection Agency, 2015), a factor that directly impacts the lives of
fishermen and locals. Another important parameter to be considered for analysis of
ecosystems, are invasive alien species, such as zebra mussels and cheap, which cause
negative impacts on the ecosystem. In relation to dangerous substances assessed that
compliance with environmental standards increased, with only the observation that there
are natural occurrences of pollutants in areas rich in minerals, such as the mining areas.
(Environmental Protection Agency, 2015)
In most rivers in Ireland, over 30% of the annual flow comes from groundwater, so
the deterioration in groundwater quality directly affects the water quality of rivers and
lakes, in addition to terrestrial ecosystems. (Environmental Protection Agency, 2015)
What shows that concern about water quality should not be directed to each resource
itself, but the integration and connectivity of all of them.

Waste management is one of the areas of most difficulty in environmental

management, and a variety of environmental policies, both in Europe and in Ireland, are
to assist the work of the professionals in the area. The legislation on waste in the
European Union (EP and CEU, 2008b) was absorbed into Irish law in March 2011.
(Environmental Protection Agency, 2012) This legislation is very important because it
adds many obligations for waste operations in the public and private sectors, as well as
for regulatory authorities. With advances in production techniques is important that
environmental policies accompany technological advances, avoiding the introduction of
new pollutants in ecosystems.
The main function of environmental management is to operate an industrial plant
by managing its resources efficiently and with minimal waste dump in the environment,
seeking greater economic efficiency and lower loss in product quality. Additionally, should
also be performed the analysis of the introduction of pollutants into the ecosystem, for all
the different waste treatment systems, evaluating proper techniques for their removal
and avoiding their disposal or at least minimizing to conditions accepted by law.
(European Commission, 2003) To the lay population, it is assumed that the appropriate
decisions and choices were already made, the impact on the environment was assessed,
all practical options for prevention and reduction were considered and all safety
measures have been taken. (European Commission, 2003)
The biggest problem in Irish water quality is the high concentration of nutrients.
There are two nutrients that are of great concern: nitrogen and phosphorus. Excessive
concentrations of these substances can lead to serious environmental impacts on rivers,
lakes and marine waters, as a decrease in oxygen levels and the extinction of species, in
addition to being unfit for human consumption. Recent progress in the decontamination
of these substances is mainly due to better farming practices and improved wastewater
management infrastructure. Looking forward, there are risks to these improvements,
which include the Irish agricultural expansion planned by 2020, which could led to a rise
in concentration of those substances in the aquatic environment, another reason is the
increase in drainage level generated by the population, due to the growth of population.
(Environmental Protection Agency, 2015)
The physical-chemical treatment of wastewater industry has a variety of
processes ranging from mixing systems without chemical interactions for complex
systems with many treatment options, many of the systems are designed for specific
waste streams. The selection and sequence of processes performed by a treatment plant
is mainly determined by the characteristics of flux residues and the effluent quality
required. The treatment process has the primary purpose of treating contaminated waste
water, but typically includes a variety of organic materials, especially those streams of
industrial origin, so it is expected that these procedures also have some effect when
treating organic materials. Many of the facilities declare the total emission of waste in the
water, such as nitrogen, organic carbon, phosphorus and chloride; showing that their
treatment process is appropriate and is in line with current legislation. (European
Commission, 2006)
To minimize the amount of waste water generated can be useful to collect and
mix streams of several different processes and process the whole mixture, increasing the
potential for precipitation and corrosion. However, depending on flow, often the choice of
a specific treatment system is therefore necessary, because the interaction with another
stream can hamper the treatment of water, so the stream treatment alone is more
effective. Concern by mixing various streams is in the mixing of contaminated and
uncontaminated waste water, increasing system costs by treating a portion of water that
do not need. (European Commission, 2003)
There is a divergence in analysis when it wants to introduce a new environmental
management or when you want to apply in an existing plant. In new installations, the
measures of control and security can be efficiently introduced into the plant planning
stage. For existing facilities, must be adapted to existing installations and infrastructure,
involving technical and organizational requirements, which generally increases the cost
and requires more attention. However, the proposed model for both new and existing
plants is basically the same. (European Commission, 2003)
Wastewater treatment in the chemical industry can have several different
strategies, however none of them are preferred over the others, since the pollutant

emission level is accorded with the standards of environmental protection law. (European
Commission, 2003) The treatment of wastewater typically divides the water flow into
two: one with other types of residues, typically solid, and a cleaner aqueous effluent that
is not considered waste because it has low contaminant levels and does not pollute the
environment, according to the legislation. (European Commission, 2006)
In some cases, rainwater is used in the chemical industry to reduce the
consumption of fresh water, saving others water resources. One thing common in these
industrial treatment plants is the treatment of rain water together with residual water,
but when the amount of rainwater is very high, the treatment system becomes
overloaded and does not operate properly, which could lead to more release pollutants
into the environment. (European Commission, 2003) This type of problem can happen, so
it is necessary prevention from both the industry and the regulatory authority.
The waste water from the chemical industry has almost all contaminating
compounds that occur during the process, such as compounds which do not reacted,
products, by-products, catalysts, and unwanted intermediates. (European Commission,
2003) That can cover a wide range of harmful substances to the environment, therefore
an appropriate strategy for treatment is necessary, as well as the dissemination and
verification for government entities that industrial waste is in accordance with the rules.
Generally, aqueous waste within legal parameters are dumped into the sewer.
Such waste can introduce new chemical species in the environment, therefore, these
streams need to be studied more carefully. For example, metals, ammonia and organic
chemicals are typically found in waterways. (European Commission, 2006) Another
concern is the contamination by water complex streams, with many different chemical
substances, that streams from different systems or processes may show synergistic
effects, yielding toxic and dangerous effects that do not showed separately. This can be
seen when the residue is dumped either in the sewer system or into receiving waters,
and can be considered that waste from different industries can show this synergistic
effect outside of the plant, making it difficult for regulators to discover the source of
contamination in some aquatic environment. (European Commission, 2003)
Although wastewater treatment systems reduce emissions of pollutants in the
water, sometimes these systems have their own negative effect on the environment. One
example occurs when are presence inorganic or organic volatile compounds, so where
these streams are in direct connection with the atmosphere, volatilization and emission
of these compounds in the air can occur. This type of gaseous residue is legislated by
different laws than those of waste water, so more attention is needed for professionals
involved as the regulatory authority. The wastewater treatment techniques that result in
pollutant gas emissions need to be attached to gas processing facilities. (European
Commission, 2003)
Some substances are currently being considered as dangerous in the evaluation
of the European Union, and a number of pharmaceutical products are included in this
analysis. The presence and concentrations of these substances in Irish waters needs to
be analysed and the study of a possible treatment plant for those waste needs to be
taken into account, as well as the absorption of these future substances into Irish law.
(Environmental Protection Agency, 2015) With the advancement of industrial processes
the regulator authority needs to pay attention to new products and compounds that can
be dumped as waste in the effluents, as well as perform a study of the environmental
impact of these compounds.
The data show that 4/618 of the facilities in the European Union for the treatment
of hazardous waste is located in Ireland. And it does not have information about the
treatment of non-hazardous waste in Ireland. (European Commission, 2006) This
information shows that Ireland is at least one step ahead of many countries that have
neither published data, but also shows need to improve their waste treatment system,
particularly those who are not considered hazardous. This type of facility must be created
and encouraged by the government because it is only beneficial to the population and
country.
The forecast for the future is a sequence of steps that will facilitate the
preparation of future reports on water quality in Ireland. Several techniques are being
developed for the treatment and monitoring of pollution, and once completed, it will be
applied to the treatments systems and monitoring program. The preparation of future

reports on water quality also have to take an alternative approach, in order to integrate
the uptake of water, and taking into account the connection between the various water
sources, so as to better understand the cause of pollution and take more appropriate
decisions on the subject. (Environmental Protection Agency, 2015)
The water quality is directly linked to quality of life of the population, and the
change of these parameters depends mainly on the initiative public and private, and not
an action of the population itself. Even if the private sector is concerned about the
environment many companies may not consider performing procedures with financial
losses. With this in mind, depends mainly on the government, the regulatory authorities
and the popular pressure to change the legislation of the country and avoid the chemical
dump in the water, helping to preserve one of the most fundamental assets for life.

References:

1. European Commission. Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Reference. Document

on Best Available Techniques for the Waste Treatments Industries. Date: August 2006.
2. European Commission: Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Reference. Document
on Best Available Techniques in Common Waste Water and Waste Gas Treatment /
Management Systems in the Chemical Sector. Date: February 2003.
3. Environmental Protection Agency. Water Quality in Ireland 2010-2012. Prepared for the
Environmental Protection Agency by Aquatic Environment Office of Environmental
Assessment. Date: 2015.
4. Environmental Protection Agency. Irelands Environment 2012 - An Assessment. Date:
June 2012
5. Department of Environment, Community and Local Government (DECLG). A Framework
for Sustainable Development for Ireland: A Draft for Public Consultation. Date: 2011.