Kildare County Council Carrying out Septic Tank Inspections
Under the National Inspection Plan for Domestic Wastewater Treatment Systems (DWWTS), produced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Kildare County Council must carry out a prescribed number of DWWTS inspections each year.
The inspections for 2023, which protect human health and water quality from the risks posed by DWWTS, are currently underway across the county. Homeowners will receive prior notification if their DWWTS has been chosen for an inspection.
The inspections, which are carried out by Kildare County Council’s Environment Section, are visual and non-intrusive. Kildare County Council is encouraging homeowners to familiarise themselves with the location of their DWWTS and all associated pipework. Homeowners are also advised to look out for signs of a poorly maintained system such as excessive sludge, slow draining toilets and sinks, foul odours, ponding of effluent or contaminated effluent entering drains and ditches.
If a DWWTS fails an inspection there may be a grant available to aid an upgrade.
There 14,962 registered DWWTS in Kildare and many more that are currently unregistered. DWWTS include all septic tanks, wastewater tanks and treatment systems receiving, storing, treating or disposing of domestic wastewater. It also includes all fittings and percolation areas associated with such tanks and systems and drains used to discharge wastewater from a premises, whether or not a receiving tank is present.
DWWTS should be serviced and de-sludged on a regular basis by an authorised waste contractor and receipts should be kept and produced during the inspection.
For more information on how to maintain your DWWTS and for a list of septic tank sludge collectors in Kildare visit https://kildarecoco.ie/AllServices/Environment/WasteWater/
All DWWTS are required to be registered, this includes properties which are let and all types of residential premises including buildings, caravans, mobile homes and any other structures served by a DWWTS.
The register is maintained by ‘Protect Our Water’ who will issue owners with a Certificate of Registration. The fee for registration is set at €50. For further information visit - https://www.protectourwater.ie
New-build properties must be registered within 90 days of connection to a DWWTS and change of ownership of existing houses must also be notified to ‘Protect Our Water’. Failure to register by the prescribed date precludes owners from availing of a grant to upgrade a septic tank system.
