Almost half of septic tanks in Donegal fail EPA inspection in 2022

An Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report has found that almost half of the septic tanks in the county failed inspections in 2022. 

However, the inspection which was carried out on Domestic Waste Water Treatment Systems (DWWTS) found that 83% of the septic tanks were fixed before the culmination of 2022. 

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The findings in Donegal were in line with the rest of the country. The inspection found that nationwide, 20% of the tanks inspected posed a risk to human health and the environment. 

Local authorities have taken 47 legal actions for failure to fix DWWTS since 2013, with 11 taken in 2022. Almost all of these legal actions were taken by Wexford, Kerry and Mayo County Councils. 

The report finds that local authorities need to increase enforcement, including prosecution where warranted, to resolve faulty DWWTS so that the environment and public health is protected. The EPA is progressing a number of enforcement actions with local authorities that are not meeting the requirements of the National Inspection Plan. 

In Donegal, 100 inspections were conducted in 2022 which recorded a failure rate of 44%. The inspections also found 317 systems failing in the 9 years between 2013 and 2022.