Upgrades to mid-Louth water treatment plant given September 2026 completion date

Work to upgrade the treatment facilities at the Greenmount Water Treatment Plant is expected to be completed in September 2026 according to a report on water quality published by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The plant which supplies water to the mid-Louth area has been slated for works for a number of years with the last estimate putting the cost of works at between €5- €10 million.

The report also gives an expected completion date of October 2023 for work to replace the Tallanstown PWS (Public Water Supply), which serves 1,932 people, with water from the Cavanhill PWS.

The EPA notes that it required compliance on these works by December 2020.

Further work on the Greenmount plant was directed by the EPA in March last year and this was completed by the end of June 2022. 

The report also notes that a boil water notice was in effect for ten days in the middle of July last year for 278 customers on the Greenmount water supply due to Enterococci bacteria, and a further boil water notice was in place for twelve days in late July and early August last year for customers on the same system. 

Nationally, the report found that the quality of drinking water from public supplies remains very high, with over 99.7% of samples compliant with bacterial and chemical limits.

However , 481,000 people are currently served by “at-risk” supplies on the EPA’s Remedial Action List (RAL), up from 374,000 people in 2021. 

Launching the report, Dr Tom Ryan, EPA Director said: 

“Our public water quality remains very high, which means that the public can be confident that the drinking water supplied to their homes is safe to drink. 

“Uisce Éireann has made good progress in delivering necessary new drinking water infrastructure such as the new plant at Lee Road in Cork which now supplies high quality drinking water to 97,000 people.

“However, the EPA through our inspection and monitoring programme, continues to identify drinking water plants that are at risk and require improvements and upgrades. At the end of 2022, there were 481,000 people being served by at risk supplies on EPA’s RAL.

“Uisce Éireann needs to prioritise investment in those plants to improve the resilience of drinking supplies, to provide a safe and secure supply into the future.”