Whilst there is a ton of useful data on the EPA Ireland web-site, it’s not exactly easy to track what’s going on.
Tool built by https://twitter.com/conoro to scrape the thousands of individual RSS feeds and generate what is hopefully helpful to those of you who wish to monitor submissions on the site.
The code is all up on GitHub here. In summary what it does is:
Once a day around 1.30am GMT, it scrapes all the feeds on the EPA site
It saves all the data into a SQLite database and uploads that to Amazon S3
It updates a single small RSS feed with all the submissions from the previous day
It generates a new CSV file with the same data as the RSS feed and saves that to GitHub
If you’d like to receive email with a link to the latest CSV each day:
Create a GitHub Account
Click the drop-down menu beside “Watch” in the top right of this project’s page.
Select “Custom” and tick the box beside “Issues”. Then click Apply.
You should start receiving the emails beginning tomorrow.
SQLite Database
The latest full set of scraped data is available as a SQLite DB that you can download here. Use something like SQLiteStudio to browse and query it.
Examining the data in the SQLite Database using Datasette Lite
You can use a very cool project by Simon Willison called Datasette Lite to browse and query all the latest data in your browser by going here. I highly recommend playing around with it, as you can query by keywords and date ranges.
The EPA is seeking to procure spatial ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) software to assist in its spatial dataset development, workflow, and modelling tasks. The EPA receives data from a number of different sources in multiple data formats. From this data the EPA generates and builds additional datasets, import the data into existing system and run analysis and modelling on the relevant datasets
At a minimum the tool will have the ability to support multiple data formats such as (but not limited to): Shapefile, Excel, CSV, Geodatabase, SQL, KML, TAB, DWG, JSON, LiDAR, ECW, PDF, GML, PostgreSQL, GPX.
Per and polyfluoroalkylated substances ( are a group of manmade chemicals that may be found in aqueous film forming foam ( used in some fire suppression systems, including portable handheld fire extinguishers.
While PFAS encompass a very large number of substances and the effects of most of these are unknown, PFAS (such as perfluorooctanoic acid ( and perfluorooctane sulfonate ( are widely recognised as harmful to humans and the environment PFAS are often described as the “forever chemicals” due to their persistent nature meaning they break down very slowly, if at all, in the environment and so can pose long term risks.
Furthermore, many PFAS present in fire fighting foams are both bioavailable and bioaccumulative, meaning they are easily absorbed by living organisms and can increase in concentration within the body PFAS discharged on land, can contaminate the soil, or be washed off into streams, rivers, potentially contaminating groundwater and drinking water supplies.
There is a requirement of annual reporting to the EPA of stockpiles of fire-fighting foams containing Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) and PFOA-related substances.
A full list of substances that are classed as “PFOA, its salts and PFOA-related compounds” is available at PFAS | Environmental Protection Agency (epa.ie). This currently consists of 32 substances
EDEN reporting is only required for stockpiles > 50 kg ( smaller stockpiles are reports via email to pops@epa.ie )
This is the Bathing Water Open Data API which has three API datasets: Locations, Measurements and Alerts.
This information is populated using the EPA’s CRM Bathing Water information service and the EPA’s central water quality database Aquarius.
Local authorities report this information to the EPA via the Bathing Water Information System (BWIS) and Monitoring Data System (MDS) applications on EDEN (Environmental Data Exchange Network).
The EPA provides this information to the public via the responsive beaches.ie website.
Local authorities are required to report the information for ‘identified’ bathing waters monitored and managed under the requirements of the Bathing Water Quality Regulations 2008 (SI No. 79 of 2008). In addition, local authorities report information to the EPA for other monitored waters not managed under the Regulations (non-identified bathing waters).
In relation to what happens to the information that landfill operators submit to the EPA – this comes into an internal system that is used by the EPA to manage the issuing and enforcement of EPA licences and other EPA authorisations.
Some of the information held in this system is published to the EPA website (e.g. Annual Environmental Reports, Site Inspection reports), and other information is made available at EPA offices (e.g. via a user interface called LEAP).
There are three active municipal waste landfills accepting waste in Ireland at present – Knockharley Landfill (W0146-02), Drehid Landfill (W0201-03) and Ballynagran Landfill (W0165-02).
Should public wish to see more specific information/data about the three landfills, each of these landfills operates under an Industrial Emissions (IE) licence, so they can find more specific information by searching for the relevant licence here:
The “BMW Reporting Module” in EDEN is not a dataset, and there is no facility to view landfill data on that module, other than any data returns that someone has previously submitted to the EPA for a landfill under their control.
The BMW reporting module is only a mechanism for landfill operators to submit specific information to the EPA on municipal waste acceptance which is required to be submitted under the conditions of their licence.
Waste Management (Facility Permit and Registration) Regulations, 2007, Amended by the Waste Management (Facility Permit and Registration)(Amendment) Regulations, 2008
Request under Article 11 of the Regulations to the Environmental Protection Agency for determination as to whether an activity requires a waste licence, waste facility permit, certificate of registration or none of these
Note from EPA: You must have following information to-hand before completing the Article 11 Request form.
Contact email address.
Grid Reference (Eastings & Northings).
Site map, showing outline of site of proposed activity.
The Authorisation or Registration Number if you have existing authorisation i.e. Waste/IPPC Licence, Waste Permit, Certificate of Registration.
The Reference Number if you have submitted a previous Article 11 request.
Description of Waste, including:
Solid or Liquid
European Waste Catalogue (EWC) Code
Annual intake in tonnes
Annual intake in litres
Source of Waste
The amount, in tonnes and litres, of ‘residual waste’ remaining after recovery that is to be sent on for disposal.
Whether ‘biological treatment’ is involved in the proposed activity.
For biological treatment processes, the quantity of biowaste, digestate and compost, as relevant, in tonnes and cubic metres that will be present at the facility at any one time.
For land deposition/reclamation/restoration activities, the amount of waste (in tonnes) to be deposited over the operational lifetime of the activity.
Information related to Planning – planning reference number or evidence of exemption.
Information on Designated Sites, where applicable (e.g. Special Areas of Conservation, Special Protection Areas, Ramsar sites, Natural Heritage Areas). Information should include:
Site Name
Site Code
Confirmation as to whether or not the site of the proposed activity is in, or next to, a wetland.
Local Authority- Do I need a Waste Licence or Certificate of Registration
Database for waste facility permits and certificates of registration
The Waste Facility Permit and the Certificate of Registration Database is a register for waste facility permits and certificates of registration issued by local authorities under the Waste Management (Facility Permit and Registration) Regulations, S.I. No. 821 of 2007, as amended. This website is a central register hosted by the National Waste Collection Permit Office (NWCPO) of all waste facility permits and certificates of registration granted, reviewed, revoked and expired. The database can be accessed at the following link: http://facilityregister.nwcpo.ie/
Application to access modules (non public sector user sees 12 of the 25 modules)
Water Abstraction Registration via Eden
Developed by the EPA to enable registering of water abstractions, to satisfy the requirements of the European Union (Water Policy) (Abstractions Registration) Regulations 2018.
Information that comes within the scope of Waste Statistics reporting is published in aggregated form on the EPA’s National Waste Statistics website ( https://www.epa.ie/nationalwastestatistics/
Environmental Data Exchange Network (EDEN)
EDEN is the EPA’s online web portal for Local Authorities and licensees to communicate with the EPA on numerous applications.
EDEN provides an online gateway to Environmental and Radiological Protection Licensing, Monitoring, GIS and Reporting applications for organisations to communicate with the EPA and share data with each other.
1. Radiation Licensing (before you acquire radioactive materials or irradiating apparatus, you need an authorisation (registration or licence) from the EPA.
The LEAP system records all formal enforcement correspondence between the EPA and its licensees.
Documents are placed on the Licence Enforcement Access Portal (LEAP), accessible at any EPA office, at the time of issue or receipt.
As of 1 January 2016, they are also published online on the Licence Details Page of the EPA website, http://www.epa.ie, 60 calendar days after issue or receipt by the EPA.
The Keystone Enforcement Documents
These are the documents that collectively provide a substantive overview of the enforcement status of the licence.
The specific Online-Publishable document types are:
EPA Site Visit (Inspection and Monitoring) Reports and Licensee Public Responses thereto (New);
Routine Self-Monitoring Reports (i.e. as per Licence Schedule; not investigations; see Appendix I below);
Special Sectoral Reports (Waste Incineration and Co-Incineration Plants performance reports; Solvent emissions monitoring reports; Solvent management plans);
EDEN allows users to report pollutants to Air, Water, Wastewater/Sewer or Land
Note: Releases to land applies only to pollutants in waste which is subject to the disposal operations ‘land treatment’ or ‘deep injection’. Sludge and manure spreading are recovery operations and therefore not reported as releases to land.
Emissions to Land refers to specific operations only and is not commonly used in Ireland
