Guides › Water body status
Water quality map of Ireland: river, lake and groundwater status
Under the EU Water Framework Directive, the EPA classifies every river, lake, estuary, coastal water and
groundwater body in Ireland on a five-step scale from High to Bad. The status of the water around a site tells you
about the local environment, and can shape what the council expects from any discharge or run-off from it.
How InSite helps
- Names the groundwater body under the site and its EPA status (every one the plot touches, once you confirm the boundary).
- Lists the nearby rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal waters with their status, drawn on the map, so you can see which water a discharge from the site would reach.
Free, from public data. Enter an Eircode or address:
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The five status classes
| Status | Roughly means |
|---|
| High | Close to natural, undisturbed conditions. |
| Good | Only slight change from natural. The target the Directive sets for every water body. |
| Moderate | Clearly affected by human activity. Below target. |
| Poor | Significantly damaged. |
| Bad | Severely damaged. |
Rivers, lakes and coastal waters get an ecological status, judged mainly on plants, insects and fish
plus water chemistry. Groundwater is rated Good or Poor, on its chemistry and on
whether more water is taken out than is replenished.
Many Irish water bodies are below Good. Around Dublin, for example, Poor and Moderate rivers outnumber Good ones.
The main pressures nationally are agriculture, wastewater and changes to river channels.
Why it matters for a site
- Discharges: a septic tank, treatment plant or surface water outfall that drains towards a
water body below Good status may face stricter conditions, because the plan for that water body is to improve it.
- Construction run-off: silt from building sites is a common cause of river damage; expect
conditions near sensitive watercourses.
- Amenity: it's a fair indication of whether the river at the end of the garden is in good health.
What it can't tell you
- Status is assessed for whole water bodies, often kilometres of river, not for the stretch beside a site.
- It isn't drinking water quality. For a private well, test the water itself.
Sources
- EPA, Water Framework Directive status (latest assessment), via the EPA's map service, CC BY 4.0.
Catchment detail at catchments.ie
Last reviewed 2026-10-02.
Check any site in Ireland
One free report from public data: terrain, flood risk, geology, archaeology, protected areas, radon, planning history and more.
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Related guides
- Flood riskHow to read the OPW flood maps: river, coastal and surface water flooding, the 10%, 1% and 0.1% bands, and Flood Zones A, B and C.
- Groundwater vulnerabilityWhat GSI's Extreme, High, Moderate and Low vulnerability classes mean, and why they matter for septic tanks and soakaways.
- Aquifers and source protectionWhat GSI's aquifer categories mean, and whether a site sits in a protection zone around a public or group water supply.
- Wells and water table depthHow GSI's well and borehole records give a real measured depth to water near a site, and how far to trust an estimate from them.
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