Why are we losing Blue Dots?

Generally Blue Dot waters tend to be in the upper section of river catchments. For this reason, they are affected by some land use activities more than others. In addition to this Blue Dot waters are more commonly found along the Western seaboard and in mountainous areas e.g. Wicklow and Slieve Bloom Mountains. The dominant land uses in these areas are Forestry, Agriculture and Peat extraction and low density one off housing.

The profile of pressures that impact on our Blue Dots is slightly different to the pressures impacting on our Good Status water bodies. While agriculture is the most significant pressure on our good status waters, forestry is the most significant pressure on our Blue Dot waters. Forestry is a pressure on 51 (40%) of our Blue Dot waters, followed by hydromorphology in 43 (34%) water bodies, agriculture in 35 (28%) water bodies, peat extraction or disturbances in 16 (13%) water bodies and domestic waste-water in 13 (10%).

Activities that impact on our Blue Dot waterbodies in order the number of waters that are affected:

  1. Forestry
  2. Hydromorphology
  3. Agriculture
  4. Peat
  5. Other
  6. Domestic WWTP
  7. Urban WWTP
  8. Industry
  9. Mines and Quarries

http://www.lawaters.ie/bd-location-and-pressures/

River Domestic Waste Water Pressures

Significant pressures have been identified for waterbodies that are At Risk of not meeting their water quality objectives under the Water Framework Directive. While there are a multitude of pressures in every waterbody, the significant pressures are those pressures which need to be addressed in order to improve water quality. Many of our waterbodies have multiple significant pressures. A robust scientific assessment process has been carried out to determine which pressures are the significant pressures. This has incorporated over 140 datasets, a suite of modelling tools, and local knowledge from field and enforcement staff from the Local Authorities, Inland Fisheries Ireland and EPA. Impacts from domestic waste water include nutrient and organic pollution. This assessment synthesises over a decade of field studies on on-site systems in Ireland across many different soils types and combines factors relating to the efficiency of the septic tank systems with attenuation factors for the hydrogeological flow pathway.

https://data.gov.ie/dataset/river-domestic-waste-water-pressures?package_type=dataset

Groundwater Domestic Waste Water Pressures

Significant pressures have been identified for waterbodies that are At Risk of not meeting their water quality objectives under the Water Framework Directive. While there are a multitude of pressures in every waterbody, the significant pressures are those pressures which need to be addressed in order to improve water quality. Many of our waterbodies have multiple significant pressures. A robust scientific assessment process has been carried out to determine which pressures are the significant pressures. This has incorporated over 140 datasets, a suite of modelling tools, and local knowledge from field and enforcement staff from the Local Authorities, Inland Fisheries Ireland and EPA. Impacts from domestic waste water include nutrient and organic pollution. This assessment synthesises over a decade of field studies on on-site systems in Ireland across many different soil types and combines factors relating to the efficiency of the septic tank systems with attenuation factors for the hydrogeological flow pathway.

https://data.gov.ie/dataset/groundwater-domestic-waste-water-pressures?package_type=dataset