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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
— village December - January
, for all the
financial chaos they cause, don’t kill peo-
ple. Dysfunctional septic tanks, on the other
hand, can and do. E.coli – a nasty bug thrown
up by many faulty septic tanks - most affects
the very young and the very old. Ireland has
up to , septic tanks. Private group-
water schemes supply around , peo-
ple, or % of the population. Close to one
third of private group water schemes are con-
taminated by E.coli while more than half fail
to meet the standards on coliform bacteria.
Public water supplies score better, but a great
many are running into problems due to the
overuse of disinfectants – and the explana-
tion for this excessive chemical use is pollu-
tion getting into the water in the first place.
Septic tanks aren’t uniquely responsible for
E.coli and other harmful bacteria. Agricultural
pollution plays a major role too. But leaking
septic tanks are a central part of the problem.
Just as agricultural pollution is being tackled
in Ireland under the EU’s Nitrates Directive,
septic tanks fall foul of EU law too. The rele-
vant EU legislation dates back to .
On
th
October the European Court
of Justice issued a landmark judgement against
Ireland condemning “the existence, through-
out Ireland, of serious shortcomings...such
as the incorrect construction, unsuitable sit-
ing, insufficient capacities, maintenance and
inspection and the inactivity of the compe-
tent administrative authorities” regarding
septic tanks and similar treatment systems.
Since the European Commission has
been in repeated contact with the Department
of the Environment seeking a proper sys-
tem of inspection and maintenance, and the
European Court found that the laws, guide-
lines and policy circulars in place in Ireland
didn’t have the “indisputable binding force
necessary” for the effective application of EU
laws to protect human health and the envi-
ronment. The European judgment is a damn-
ing indictment of a long-running failure in
Ireland – administrative as well as political
Tax on second homes key to compliance with EU ruling on water pollution
j a m e s n i x
Septic Tanks
Water from the well
PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES
- and one which has led to situations of neigh-
bour poisoning neighbour. The ruling against
Ireland was expected, and the Department
of the Environment has to get back to the
Commission by the end of mapping out
a solution. Of the or so European environ-
mental actions in train against Ireland – the
highest per capita – the septic tank case possi-
bly has the greatest impact on human health.
To put things in perspective, E.coli lev-
els in Ireland are seven times those of
Northern Ireland (which is on a par with the
Netherlands), times those of Scotland, and
times those of England and Wales. In some
counties the majority of private group water
schemes have been found to be infected with
E.coli (e.g. Donegal, Leitrim and Mayo). In
terms of population affected, Galway is the
worst offender with of its private
group water schemes contaminated by E.coli.
A study published by the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) in shows
counties Kerry, Galway, Cork and Donegal to
be among the worst offenders for overall water
standards: each of these counties has to
public or private water schemes in breach
of standards. The most frequently cited rea-
sons for breach were inadequate treatment
for cryptosporidium, failure to meet E.coli
standards, and excessive levels of trihalom-
ethanes (THMs). Excessive THMs are carcino-
genic: basically, what’s happened here is that
too much chlorine and too many other chem-
icals have been sprayed on drinking water in
an attempt to ‘neutralise’ pollution from sep-
tic tanks and other sources. THMs also affect
nerve, kidney and liver functions. To be fair
there is a committed cohort of civil servants
working to try to undo the damage of years
of half measures and inaction.
The EPA published a new code of prac-
tice in late October, now available to view on
www.epa.ie, but there remain some difficul-
ties with the document. For example, there
appears to be no known way to definitively
test a septic tank to make sure it is not pol-
luting. Should government continue to sanc-
tion a device we can’t test in practice? Septic
tanks are at the cheap end of the spectrum,
costing €,-€,. Buying a package
system that’s guaranteed not to pollute raised
the capital cost to €,. There’s also the
question of flooding. Arguably, the EPA’s code
of practice puts too little emphasis on flood
risk: septic tanks can yield up their contents in
a flood; more expensive systems usually have
a shut-down feature to discreetly lock it all
in. The government will soon start a public
consultation process on rules for new build-
ings not served by municipal sewage systems.
But that will cover only new buildings. What
about all the existing systems? Under the EPA’s
code of practice a homeowner is encouraged
to inspect the functionality of their septic tank.
But there are problems here. Engineers work-
ing in the sector endure a battery of jabs to
ward off a host of pernicious bugs lurking in
wastewater. Should government be encour-
aging ordinary householders to physically lift
the lid on septic tanks? Ireland doesn’t offer
any courses to qualify competent persons in
this sector. There’s a working group on that
which will report during . Perhaps it will
engender a growing body of people to imple-
ment a new regime.
One county, Cavan, didn’t wait for the EU
court action, and the October ruling expressly
excludes Cavan County Council, noting that it
put in place an enforcement system involving
independent inspection, under bylaws.
Septic tanks in Cavan must be registered and
inspected every seven years. In reality, this
is not sufficiently frequent, but it is a start.
Moreover, we don’t have enough published
information on the operation of the Cavan sys-
tem. What we do know is that Cavan had car-
ried out , septic tank inspections by the
end of . But we don’t know how many
of those failed, what follow–up procedure is
in place for systems that don’t pass the initial
inspection or whether for cases where inter-
vention is required but the householder can-
not afford to pay, there is a remediation fund.
Nevertheless, Cavan does point the way.
Of our . million homes, some ,
have their own waste-water treatment (%).
Another , systems serve small schools,
pubs and other enterprises in villages and
towns that aren’t on municipal sewage treat-
ment systems. In short, outside of cities, well
over half of homes and businesses systems are
on septic tanks (or similar systems) in many
counties. One of the worst offenders is septic
tanks at coastal holiday homes. Because holi-
day homes are used intermittently, their septic
tanks tend to break down more and, truth be
told, inappropriate technology was frequently
specified at design stage.
A national inspection
system, involving checks
once every four years,
with allowance being
made for follow-up checks
for tanks that fail initial
inspections, may require
the employment - or per-
haps the retraining and
redeployment - of more
than suitably qual-
ified persons. There’s a
cost involved here. The
total amount depends on
the sum allocated for waivers and intervention
for low-income households. But the cost per
household may lie in the €– a year range.
Clearly, a national system covering ,
homes and businesses is not going to be estab-
lished overnight. Over the past year the levy
on second homes has proved an important tool
for councils, not just to generate revenue, but
also to establish the spread of property com-
prising non-principal-private residences. To
address the EU judgment, a logical first step
would be to increase the levy by € for all
second homes with septic tanks. This revenue
would at least help get a robust system up and
going. And over the course of a regis-
tration system could also be started to log pri-
mary homes with septic tanks, without charge
to householders. A lot more thought needs to
go in to the kind of systems that will replace
failing septic tanks. Compost toilets have been
widely used in Sweden for decades and people
like Ollan Herr at Reedbeds Ireland are bring-
ing the technology to Irish households.
Overall, it’s going to take some time to
build up capacity and expertise. Small sen-
sible steps are needed to get started. If those
steering the project keep in mind the hidden
victims here - the very young and very old
in homes on polluted group-water schemes
– they will stay the course. And a small extra
charge on second homes with septic tanks
appears to be a good way to start.
“…E.coli levels in Ireland are…
28 times those of England and
Wales”
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