Date released: February 13, 2026
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) welcomes the external review of the Blackwater Fish Kill response by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. The report makes valuable recommendations for improving the response to such a detrimental emergency, and suggests possible avenues to help prevent fish kills and improve the detection of pollution.
The devastation caused by the fish kill on the Blackwater in August 2025 had an unjust and negative impact on local communities. Responding to, and preventing, such detrimental incidents will require all stakeholders to work collaboratively to improve procedures, strengthen policy, gather data and assess evidence.
Notably, the report highlights that the EPA’s main role and responsibility in this incident was delivered rapidly, thoroughly and with transparency. In particular, "the deployment of three inspection teams to regulated sites within an hour of notification is clearly an example of best practice by the EPA. The follow-on inspections, reviewing practices, monitoring data and collection of samples from up to 31 facilities was thorough.”
The EPA’s primary role in the investigation into the fish mortalities on the Blackwater was to assess whether EPA-regulated sites within the region of interest could have been responsible, and to take action against any operator found to be at fault.
Commenting on the Report, EPA Director of the office of Environmental Enforcement, Dr Tom Ryan said:
“The JRC report highlights the need for better communication with the public, more immediate sampling by local authorities and greater coordination between agencies. It also rightly emphasises that existing directives, frameworks and procedures should be clarified or strengthened to ensure smooth and timely interagency cooperation. The report also raises possible approaches to improve detection, which warrant further investigation. The EPA will continue to work closely with Inland Fisheries Ireland, local authorities and Government Departments to improve responses to such events, and ultimately seek to prevent similar events from happening.”
ENDS
Further information: Niamh Hatchell, EPA Media Relations Office:
053-91 70770 (24 hours) and media@epa.ie
Notes to Editor
Investigation Overview
The EPA first became aware of a serious fishkill on the morning of the 12th August 2025, and immediately mobilised resources in the Blackwater catchment to investigate whether any EPA-regulated site could have been a source of polluting material. This investigation was outlined in a comprehensive report that was published just over six weeks later. The EPA’s investigation encompassed:
Of the 31 EPA-regulated sites investigated, 27 had either no discharges, or had compliant discharges during the weeks prior to the 12th August. However, four of the 31 facilities investigated had discharges that were not compliant with licence requirements in July and August, and one small wastewater facility with a certificate of authorisation was operating above operational capacity. These sites were:
The EPA was already aware of the issues at four of these sites, with the breach at Millstreet detected during the investigation. All these issues remain the subject of on-going enforcement action which is separate and distinct from the investigation into the causality of the fish mortalities on the Blackwater.
The EPA regulates, through authorisation and enforcement, almost 900 industrial and waste facilities, over 1000 wastewater authorisations and approximately 750 drinking water treatment plants, with 2,236 inspections carried out across these sectors in 2025. All inspection and monitoring reports are available on the EPA website via the LEAP online portal.
It is the responsibility of the local authority (LA) to respond to water pollution events, including taking water samples for chemical analysis and catchment-wide ambient water sampling.