Almost half of all household septic tanks inspected for the Environmental Protection Agency failed.
Just under a thousand inspections were carried out between July 2013 and June last year as part of the first ever national review of domestic waste water treatment systems in Ireland.
The organisation says the most common reason for failure was lack of de-sludging.
Of the 48% that failed, the EPA says many could have been avoided by householders taking simple steps to de-sludge and maintain the treatment system.
Following remediation work by householders nearly 8 out of ten (79%) of the inspected systems are now compliant with the regulations.
Eimear Cooney, inspector with Environmental Protection Agency, spoke to Newstalk Lunchtime about the figures:
Gerard O’Leary, Director of EPA’s Office of Environmental Enforcement said, “the inspections have, for the first time, allowed for the systematic collection of information on the condition of domestic waste water treatment systems in Ireland. The results show that many of the failures could have been prevented.”
Mr O'Leary added that inspections are now a routine part of local authority work.
Originally posted at 11.47am
