Ireland's State of the Environment Report 2024

192 Chapter 8: Water Figure 8.1  The five ecological status classes of surface waters and the associated environmental impacts Ecological Status HIGH MODERATE POOR BAD GOOD None or Minor Moderate Major Severe Clean, healthy, resilient and diverse ecosystem functioning normally Altered ecosystem with impaired function. Reduced diversity and resilience Slight Impact Outcome Source: EPA, 2022 Surface waters Nearly half (46%) (EPA, 2022) of our surface waters are not ecologically healthy, and this is primarily due to human activities. Agriculture, damage to hydromorphology (see Topic Box 8.1), commercial conifer forestry plantations and poorly treated sewage are the most significant pressures on Ireland’s aquatic environment. The EPA undertakes a full assessment of the overall quality and ecological status of Ireland’s waters every 3 years and reports on the indicators of water quality in the intervening years. The data and evidence in this report are based on the most recent full assessment of the status of Ireland’s surface waters (EPA, 2022) (Figure 8.2) and updated indicators data from 2022 (EPA, 2023a) and 2023 (EPA, 2024a).