More than 50 septic tanks in Cork still not fixed after council inspections

MORE than 140 septic tank inspections were undertaken by Cork city and county councils in 2023, with 52 tanks still needing to be fixed, a new report by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has revealed.

The report on Domestic Waste Water Treatment System Inspections 2023, which details the findings of septic tank inspections completed by local authorities in 2023, found that 45% of all septic tanks inspect in Ireland failed their inspection. In Cork county, 136 inspections were completed during the year, and 53 failing systems were found.

Failures

This brought the total number of system failures from 2013-2022, to 501, the third highest in Ireland, an increase of 53 from 2022 when Cork county had the highest number in the country at 448.

90% of these failing systems, including some from the year previous that had not yet been fixed, were fixed by the end of 2023, but 50 failing systems are still to be fixed.

In Cork city, only two systems were failing from 2013 to 2022, and in 2024 this had doubled to 4 after 10 inspections, with two new systems found to be failing over the course of 2023. 

Their fix rate was among the lowest in the country at 50%, meaning that only two out of the four total systems have been fixed, and two remain.

Dr Tom Ryan, director of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Enforcement, explained: “Faulty septic tanks are a risk to human health and the environment and must be fixed. The EPA, through the National Inspection Plan, has identified rivers and areas where household drinking water wells are most at risk of contamination by faulty septic tanks.” 

Where septic tanks fail inspection, local authorities issue advisory notices to householders setting out what is required to fix the problem, with the EPA report finding that there were 576 cases where issues notified to householders over two years previously had still not been addressed.

The grant schemes for remediation of septic tanks were changed at the start of 2024 to increase the amount from €5,000 to €12,000 and remove the requirement to have registered the septic tank in 2013.