12 December 2024
Early insights point to reductions in river nitrogen concentrations
A new report published by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has provided early insights into the nitrogen concentrations in 20 major rivers across Ireland from January to June 2024.
Published in advance of the EPA’s more comprehensive annual water quality assessments in June 2025, the ‘Nitrogen concentrations in selected major rivers January – June 2024’ report suggests that nitrogen concentrations in waters nationally have reduced in the first half of 2024 relative to other years, and that they are at the lowest they have been since 2016.
The EPA considers these results, which provide nitrogen data for the early insights representative sites – 20 representative river monitoring sites, which are situated at the most downstream monitoring locations on the major rivers around Ireland – as a useful early indication of the likely national picture over the full year.
Figure 1 below from the EPA shows the average nitrogen concentrations for the period January to June for each year between 2016 and 2024, at the 20 representative sites.
Figure 1: Early insight nitrogen concentrations for the Jan-Jun period of each year from 2016 to 2024 at 20 representative sites located around the country
Source: EPA
Although successive EPA reports have identified that nitrate concentrations are too high in the east, south east and south of the country and reductions are required in “areas of concern”, the EPA report shows that the trajectory of change is similar both within these areas and other areas – such as the west and north west of the country – where nitrate concentrates are less of a concern. However, it notes that there is a marked difference in the absolute nitrate concentrations between these two groups of sites, which reflects the differences in farm practices, soil types and climate conditions in these regions.
Also read: Practice change required to improve water quality