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Project title

Remediation of Faulty Septic Tanks: A Mixed Methods Approach to Environmental Risk Communication

Primary Funding Agency

Environmental Protection Agency

Co-Funding Organisation(s)

n/a

Lead Organisation

University College Dublin (UCD)

Lead Applicant

Linda Fox-Rogers

Project Abstract

Discharge of untreated effluent from deficient domestic wastewater treatment systems (DWWTS) can result in microbial contamination of public and private water bodies. An estimated 80% of rural households in the Republic of Ireland (ROI) avail of DWWTS, with many such households also dependent on private groundwater wells for domestic drinking water. Promotion of appropriate (individual-level) DWWTS management and remediation measures is thus integral towards safeguarding rural water quality and public health in the ROI. The importance of DWWTS management is highlighted by existing environmental risk assessment studies, which distinguish DWWTS as a principal point source of microbial groundwater contamination nationally. With well water consumption significantly driving elevated national incidence rates of gastrointestinal illness (e.g., verotoxigenic Escherichia coli) and supply contamination projected to increase via climate change-induced extreme weather, DWWTS warrant considerable policy focus. In 2013, on foot of growing public health concerns and EU Water Framework Directive obligations, the ROI’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established a perennial responsive strategy referred to as the National Inspection Plan (NIP). The NIP comprises a nationally allocated, local authority-delivered DWWTS inspection regime and multi-tier public engagement strategy intended to support enforcement of DWWTS registration and engender routine DWWTS maintenance. Although the NIP is a valid apparatus for regularising national management of rural domestic wastewater, several concerns about the plan’s functionality have been raised since its introduction. EPA data reveal high operational failure rates among inspected DWWTS and consistent annual increases in unresolved advisory notices. Moreover, concurrent audience research indicates that the NIP’s public communication strand has failed to engender meaningful national increases in DWWTS maintenance and risk awareness. The shortcomings of the NIP underscore the requirement for additional empirical inquiry that investigate both bottom-up and top-down DWWTS management barriers. There is currently a lack of national research examining the social dimension of DWWTS maintenance and the broad range of socio-demographic, cognitive, environmental and material factors that may influence user behaviour and engagement. Meanwhile, the role of the Irish planning system and perspectives of local authority officials towards addressing DWWTS policy and strategy implementation issues have been hitherto unexplored. Resolution of these knowledge deficits may contribute significantly towards identifying and reducing significant administrative barriers hindering execution of top-down DWWTS management instruments and formulating tailored, best-practice behaviour promotion interventions. The REM2ARC project seeks to actualise these objectives by providing a mixed-method, multidisciplinary response that recognises the experiences and needs of both households and public officials (i.e. inspectors, planners). The project proposes a suite of formative research packages comprising: a state-of-knowledge review and practice audit of DWWTS management/remediation approaches, a cross-sectional national household survey of DWWTS users, a qualitative interview study of local authority officials and planning policy review. Subsequent data synthesis measures (e.g., structural equation modelling, causal network analysis) are further proposed to pinpoint key drivers and pathways towards increased DWWTS maintenance and remediation. This, it is envisaged, will support the development of a bespoke but transferable risk communication framework and empirically robust suite of policy recommendations required for future iterations of the NIP.

Grant Approved

�149,969.60

Research Hub

Healthy Environment

Research Theme

n/a

Start Date

25/03/2024

Initial Projected Completion Date

24/03/2025