Ireland's State of the Environment Report 2024

196 Chapter 8: Water Point source discharge 3. What is the problem? Significant pressures and issues 1 www.epa.ie/publications/monitoring--assessment/freshwater--marine/update-on-pressures-impacting-on-water-quality.php (accessed 21 June 2024). A range of human activities put pressure on water quality. The EPA assesses what the particular issue is and identifies what and where the pressures are that are affecting water quality. 1 Water bodies that are in danger of not meeting their environmental objectives, based on the water monitoring data, are categorised as ‘at risk’. In total, 1649 water bodies (34%) are at risk of not meeting their environmental objectives by 2027. The top four significant pressures impacting at-risk water bodies are as follows. 1. Agriculture (impacting 1023 water bodies). The main issue associated with agriculture is the loss of excess nutrients (primarily nitrogen and phosphorus) from farming activities, both in the yard and across the farm. This is often accompanied by the loss of fine sediment, which is another important issue. Hazardous chemicals such as those found in pesticides and animal health products can also have an impact on water quality. 2. Activities that damage hydromorphology (impacting 448 water bodies). Changes to flow and physical habitat can damage the ecology and change the natural function and processes of water bodies. Hydromorphological alterations are associated with land and stream drainage (largely for agriculture or forestry), channelisation (largely driven by arterial drainage schemes, flood protection work and navigational dredging) and urban areas. See Topic Box 8.1 for more information. 3. Forestry (impacting 216 water bodies). Activities such as afforestation, forest road works, thinning, clear-felling and reforestation can cause the release of sediment, nutrients and pesticides to water bodies and can impact habitat conditions. The available evidence shows that water quality decline caused by commercial forestry activities can be substantial, dropping by two or sometimes three status classes. However, water bodies can recover within a few years and can remain in very good condition when the forests are stable between harvesting events. Much of this pressure arises from inappropriate historical afforestation practices, which included the planting of commercial conifers on peat soils, often in sensitive uplands and without water setback distances in place. 4. Urban waste water (impacting 197 water bodies). The main issues arising from urban waste water are the release of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus), organic pollution and the release of pathogens from poorly or untreated sewage that pose a risk to human health. Figure 8.7 shows the changes in the numbers of water bodies impacted by each pressure based on the three most recent assessments. The biggest change has been in the number of water bodies impacted by agriculture – an increase of over 200. The number of water bodies impacted by waste water is decreasing as investment increases and upgrading treatment plants progresses.