Date released: March 18, 2025
19th March 2025: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has today published early insights into nitrogen levels in rivers in 2024. The Early Insights Nitrogen Indicator 2024 has been developed to provide more timely information on nitrogen levels and is based on monitoring data at 20 major and representative rivers. Overall, the early insights indicator shows that nitrogen levels have improved in 2024. However, nitrogen remains too high in the southeastern half of the country. Agriculture is the primary source of nitrogen in these areas.
Commenting on the report, Dr Eimear Cotter, Director of the EPA’s Office of Evidence and Assessment, said:
“The EPA continually strives to produce timely information and evidence on Ireland’s environment. Specifically, this publication responds to a need for early insights into trends in nitrogen levels. Agriculture is the primary source of nitrogen in Irish rivers and there is significant action underway within the sector to improve water quality. It is therefore very welcome to see these early signs of improvement. It is important that the sector builds on this momentum and continues to implement actions to reduce nutrient losses in a targeted way.”
The EPA will publish its three-yearly assessment of water quality in Ireland, for the period 2019 – 2024, later in 2025. This future report will combine data on nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations in waterbodies, with the biological quality monitoring data on fish, aquatic insects and plants, to give a comprehensive assessment of the ecological health of all waters.
Jenny Deakin, EPA Programme Manager, added:
“It is very positive to see this improvement in nitrogen levels in 2024, following a period of little positive change in recent years. However, nitrogen levels remain too high in the southeastern half of the country. Further actions will be necessary to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus losses to levels which will support good ecological health in our water bodies. The ecology will not improve until nutrient levels are reduced in the areas where they are elevated. The EPA will be reporting on the ecological health of our waters later in 2025.”
The Early Insights Nitrogen Indicator 2024 report is now available on the EPA website.
Further information on local water quality and targeting agricultural measures is available on the EPA website.
Further information: Emily Williamson, EPA Media Relations Office 053-9170770 (24 hours) or media@epa.ie
Notes to Editor
EPA Reporting: The EPA undertakes a full assessment of the overall quality and ecological status of Ireland’s waters every three years. The latest full assessment was published in October 2022 and can be found on the EPA website. The next full assessment for the period 2019 – 2024 will be published in Q4 2025.
In the intervening years, the EPA reports on the indicators of water quality to provide an update on trends in the biological quality and nutrient levels of our water bodies. The latest Water Indicators Report for 2023 provides an update on the water quality of Ireland’s rivers, lakes, estuaries, coastal, and groundwaters using monitoring data collected in the 2023 period. The next annual Water Indicators report is due in mid-2026.
The Early Insights Nitrogen Indicator Report is a new reporting format we have developed to publish nitrogen data in a more timely manner – every 6 months, in September and March each year. The indicator is based on monitoring data for 20 sites on our major rivers and it is representative of nitrogen levels nationally. This report provides the indicator data for 2024.
Water Body: A water body is an area of water, which is usually either the whole or part of a lake or coastal water, or a section of a river or an estuary (e.g. Lough Ree is one water body whereas the River Lee is divided into nine water bodies for monitoring purposes).
Nitrate: Nitrate is a form of nitrogen which is a nutrient and essential for plant growth. Too much nitrogen in a water body can lead to the over-growth of plants and algae that outcompete and displace other flora and fauna. This excessive growth can also cause oxygen depletion and damage the ecology of our water bodies. Our estuaries and coastal waters are particularly sensitive to high nitrogen concentrations. The main source of excess nitrate in the environment is agriculture, with wastewater also contributing. Nitrate concentrations above the Drinking Water Standard can pose a risk to human health, particularly for young children.
Phosphorus: Phosphorus is a nutrient which is essential for plant growth. As with nitrogen, too much phosphorus in a water body can lead to the over-growth of plants and algae which disturb the ecosystem. Excess phosphorus is a particular concern for the ecological health of rivers and lakes. The main sources of excess phosphorus in the environment are agriculture and wastewater.
Pressures impacting on waters: The EPA has published a series of reports on the main pressures impacting on waters which are available at the following links: Update on pressures impacting on water quality and https://www.catchments.ie/significant-pressures/.
EPA Catchment level information on water quality is also available.
River Basin Management Plan: The River Basin Management Plan sets out the national policy and actions that will be taken to improve and protect water quality. Further information about the National River Basin Management Plan is available on the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage website.
www.catchments.ie: A collaborative EPA, LAWPRO and Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage website that is used to share data, information, and resources on water in Ireland.