189 Priority Areas for Action
Most of the pdf’s are from desk top studies, but are still useful in identifying particular issues (is there a wastewater treatment plant, is the surrounding land used for agriculture/forestry, has the river been changed physically, etc
It lets you see if the river is currently unassigned to EPA, or it’s a waterbody that is not monitored.
EPA desk studies can identify sources of potential pressures, like wastewater plants that have caused previous problems, areas where excess nutrients have been recorded in rivers, where licensed industrial plant maybe present, where land drainage for flood relief and/or agriculture may increase pressure on water quality etc.
There is no easy way to determine when an update to this EPA dataset occurs, and only about half of the 189 priority areas have published AFA reports
Some of the priority areas state “Desk Study completed” but that study is unpublished, e.g.
| Finn (Donegal) | 2018 | Desk Study completed | – |
Where a Community Engagement Meeting, or a Farmers Meeting, has been held, this is noted. But the agenda and/or minutes from these meetings are unpublished
e.g. might simply include a note to say something like “the issues raised by the meeting attendees included dumping, dredging, low flow of the river, water abstractions and the access to the septic tank grant”