Water Quality Results
Overview
Kilkenny County Council won the Chambers Ireland Award 2011 for its "Releasing Water Quality Information Project" which aims to provide ways to release water quality information in user friendly ways and encourage the use of water quality information by water service suppliers and consumers.
Water Quality Results can be viewed in two ways
- Using Kilkenny County Council's Online Water Quality Information System
- Using EPA Annual Drinking Water Reports
Kilkenny County Council's Online Water Quality Information System
Due to the sheer volume of water quality data, Kilkenny WSA put in place as part of the project a fit for purpose Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) to manage the workflow of data. This facilitated the provision of a user friendly online system to publish results. Follow the link to view water quality information by scheme or parameter type. The user can identify the scheme serving their connection using the maps provided. From there then the user can interrogate all historical results available, the oldest results being back as far as 2000. Surveillence results from both check and audit monitoring are available and the significance of the parameter is explained.
Results can be viewed in both graphical and tabular format and results can also be downloaded. Finally in our new publications and reports section all relevant documents according to the supply are posted for your convenience.
Results are available to managers of treatment plants, both public and private. This information is useful to manage risks and optimise the treatment process.
EPA Annual Drinking Water Reports
Current Report
Previous Reports
Provision and Quality of Drinking Water in Ireland: A Report for the Years 2007-2008 (1.5 mb.pdf)
WS - Water Quality - DW - Report - EPA - Drinking Water Report 2001 (2.5 mb .pdf)
WS - Water Quality - DW - Report - EPA - Drinking Water Report 2002 (1.9 mb .pdf)
WS - Water Quality - DW - Report - EPA - Drinking Water Report 2003 (933 kb)
WS - Water Quality - DW - Report - EPA - Drinking Water Report 2004 (1 mb .pdf)
WS - Water Quality - DW - Report - EPA - Drinking Water Report 2005 (960 kb .pdf)
WS - Water Quality - DW - Report - EPA - Drinking Water Report 2006 to 2007 (1.262 .pdf)
Kilkenny Data Excerpted from above reports 2001-2008 (220 kb .pdf)
The European Communities (Drinking Water)(No. 2) Regulations 2007 assign the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the role of Supervising Authority over public drinking water supplies and provides powers of enforcement to ensure actions are taken where the quality of public drinking water is deficient.
Each year the EPA collects and analyses over 250,000 Water Services Authority monitoring results for all drinking water supplies. This current report assesses the safety and security of drinking water supplies based on the results of Water Services Authority monitoring carried out in 2010 and enforcement by the EPA in the same period. Analysis is carried out on three groups of parameters - microbiological, chemical and indicator. In public health terms the microbiological are the most important as their presence can indicate a potential risk to health, followed by the chemical for which prolonged exposure can indicate a potential risk to health and the indicator parameters which are not a risk to health but indicate that an investigation and corrective action is required before it becomes a potential risk to health. The EPA is required to be notified by local authorities of any failure to meet the microbiological and chemical standards or where there is a potential danger to human health and is responsible for ensuring that the cause of the failure is investigated and that appropriate corrective action is taken by the local authority. In Ireland, the majority of drinking water comes from public water supplies (84.8%) with the remainder provided by group water schemes and private supplies (including wells serving single houses).
Meaning of Parameters
Kilkenny Councty Council's Online Water Quality Information System provides results of parametrs tested. A short technical and "plain english" description is provided within the system for the parameters, advising of the public health implication of the parameter tested. For more detailed explanation of the parameters view the useful guide from the National Federation of Group Water Schemes What's in your water?.pdf (size 585.3 KB)
