Rural housing: Ireland now has an estimated 400,000 septic tanks dealing with 50 million gallons of effluent every day and these represent a "huge threat to groundwater", according to a director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Mr Larry Stapleton was speaking at a press conference yesterday on the publication of an EPA review of the state of Ireland's environment, which stresses the need for septic tanks to be properly installed and maintained.
"Providing that guidance on both single house treatment systems and groundwater protection is followed, the EPA is satisfied that septic tanks and their associated percolation areas will provide adequate protection to groundwater," the review states.
But with one-off houses in the countryside now accounting for nearly 40 per cent of the record annual output of 68,500 new homes, the review highlights other downsides in terms of increased transport costs and lower accessibility to
services.
The proliferation of housing in rural areas also had a negative impact on the urban fabric of towns and could lead to degradation of the landscape, habitat fragmentation and overall negative impacts on Ireland's biodiversity, it says.
The review notes the publication in March by the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, of new guidelines on rural housing, which are expected to usher in a more liberal regime favouring people with "local links" for planning permission.
Asked at yesterday's press conference whether Ireland's current pattern of housing development was inherently unsustainable, the EPA's director general, Dr Mary Kelly, said this was "a planning issue and I don't want to stray into the planning area".
