More than a third of septic tanks in Galway County which were inspected in 2020 failed, an Environmental Protection Agency report says.
Of 102 inspections carried out by the EPA of septic tanks and other domestic wastewater systems in Galway last year, 36% failed the inspection.
The number of inspections carried out in each county varied wildly. Galway’s level was second only to Wexford, where 111 inspections took place last year.
At the other end of the spectrum, just one home each in counties Kerry and Sligo were inspected in 2020.
Almost a quarter of the system inspected nationwide (23%), posed a a risk to human health or the environment, either due to maintenance failures
While Galway’s failure rate was well below the national average of 54%, the county fared worse in terms of the level of failed systems which were fixed.
Between 2013 and 2022, there were 243 household which failed inspections, and of those just 63% were fixed as of May 17, 2020.
This is the fifth lowest level in Ireland, ahead of Tipperary (62%), Offaly (51%), Roscommon (50%), and Leitrim (46%), and below the national average of 76%.
