Uisce Matters
The podcast that brings you inside the world of Ireland’s water services. Hosted by Orlaith Blaney, Uisce Éireann Communications and Corporate Affair Director, each episode shares real stories from the people working to deliver safe, reliable water and wastewater services across the country.
You’ll hear honest conversations about the everyday work, the big challenges, and the moments that matter. It’s a behind-the-scenes look at a service we all depend on but rarely think about.
Whether you're curious about where your water comes from or what happens after it goes down the drain, Uisce Matters makes it easy to understand and hard to take for granted.
Uisce Matters
Ep 5 - Our drinking water — how do we know it’s safe?
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Ireland’s drinking water is of a consistently high quality — but ensuring it stays that way relies on rigorous monitoring, science and regulation.
In this episode of Uisce Matters, host Orlaith Blaney speaks with Dr Pat O’Sullivan, Drinking Water Compliance Senior Manager at Uisce Éireann Irish Water, about the substances that can make their way into water systems, from everyday household chemicals, to narcotics, to emerging industrial compounds. Pat explains how modern lifestyles influence what shows up in wastewater and source waters — and how those substances are assessed long before water reaches the tap.
The conversation explores how monitoring works in practice, why some headlines can sound alarming without the full context, and how public health risk is evaluated using robust science.
He also discusses specific issues people often worry about in their own homes, including lead in older plumbing, and emerging concerns like PFAS — outlining what is currently known, what is being monitored, and how regulation continues to evolve. At its core, this episode is about transparency, trust and reassurance — and how science, monitoring and regulation work together to protect the quality of our drinking water.
I live very, very close to the burn. The burn is sculpted by water, and all the features, all the clints and gripes that you see in the pavement, that's formed by rainwater. So I was always fascinated by the sheer power of water.
SPEAKER_00Dr. Pat O'Sullivan's early curiosity about water has evolved into a career dedicated to protecting one of our most vital natural resources. As drinking water compliance senior manager at Ishka Erin, Pat's job is to ensure that when you fill a glass of drinking water from your tap, that it's clean and safe to drink. But for him, it's far more than a job, it's the continuation of a lifelong passion. Welcome back to Ishka Matters. I'm Orla Blaney, Communications and Corporate Affairs Director at Ishka Erin. And on this episode, we learn what it takes to deliver high-quality drinking water across Ireland and the people behind the scenes who are making this happen every day. Pat breaks down the infrastructure regulation and individual responsibility required to protect public health. And he also sheds some light on what Ireland's wastewater reveals about what some people are getting up to in their spare time.
SPEAKER_01There's cocaine being found in our rivers, and that potentially could find its way into our drinking water. Sometimes plants will fail, sometimes mistakes happen. But what's critical is that the right thing is done. And if we have to put on a boil water notice to protect public health, then we do that. If you take an antibiotic, if you're not feeling too good, a large proportion of that will enter into the environment still active. So it is a concern. Our drinking water monitoring programs are expanding all the time. We're taking a new approach in terms of our drinking water monitoring. So we're moving away from the one size fits all way we used to do it to being far more proactive in terms of our monitoring.
SPEAKER_00So what exactly is clean, safe drinking water? Patrick explains.
SPEAKER_01So clean, safe drinking water is potable water. It's water that's fit for human consumption. And in essence, what that means is that it's free from any harmful microbiological species, it's compliant with the drinking water regulations, and it's free from any excessive chemical content.
SPEAKER_00So what kind of things are in water? What kind of chemicals and nutrients? The safe ones, let's start with those.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So water by its nature is uh often called the universal solvent. So by its nature, it will hold a lot of elements, it'll hold a lot of minerals. The most common ones uh really, and the ones that give water its taste quality would be calcium and magnesium. So uh water that has um a lot of calcium and magnesium, that can be described as hard water, and a lot of people that would be used to hard water understand its taste quality. Water that would have lower levels of calcium and magnesium, that would be classed as soft water. So if you're getting your water from a lake body, for example, you will understand its taste quality. And we often get customer complaints uh from people uh that that are used to soft water that may be getting uh hard water from us, you know. So it's very interesting how how the aesthetic of water is very personal to people. Uh, water can also contain a lot of other elements such as uh sodium and potassium, and these are very good for health function. Um and trace and trace elements, such as trace elements of copper or for zinc, uh, for example.
SPEAKER_00And I guess when I go to my mother's house, um she has lovely, clean, safe drinking water, and I really enjoy the taste. But water can taste different depending on where you are in the country. Is that due to the source of where it's coming from?
SPEAKER_01It is. It's very much related to the geology, to the aquifers that the water is abstracted from. So, as I said before, if you're getting your water that's coming from a predominantly limestone uh region, it can be quite hard and it's got that very dense taste, and people like it. And actually, as uh as a matter of interest, you know, hard water is is has has significant health benefits uh in terms of heart function, etc. If you're getting your water from a lake, uh it can be lower in calcium and magnesium, and it has got that soft taste. And as I said, people either like one or the other, but not both, um, me included.
SPEAKER_00I guess when I was a young, younger version of myself, I was in the girl guides, which was called the Brigines, and I used to go up to the Wicklow Mountains on little hikes and tours, and we used to drink the water from the streams up in the Wicklow Mountains. Was that a safe thing to do?
SPEAKER_01Um, you could be lucky. Uh, let's put it that way. Uh it's not advisable. Uh while it might look clean and crisp and taste fresh, it may contain some harmful bugs. Uh, and depending on your own immune system, it mightn't matter to you. But it's something that we really zone in on, and especially in terms of public health and looking after people that might have depressed immune systems, microbiological uh species such as E. coli or enterococci, um, they can have an impact on people, so much so it could send them to hospital. So this is something we're really focused on.
SPEAKER_00And Pat, I guess we're all getting a little bit more, I suppose, knowledgeable about the kinds of things that are in water. And then there's the things that people put into the network themselves. So, you know, for somebody pouring bleach down the sink at home, and the different kind of shampoos and all the things that we use in our day-to-day living, are we doing harm to our water by using those things and putting them down the sink?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. That's that's probably a very wider question. It's almost a societal question. Um, in reality, you know, every time we do our weekly shop, we're bringing back a lot of chemicals into our house. Or if we need to go to the pharmacy, we're bringing in chemicals such as pharmaceuticals, etc. Invariably, they're going to end up in the environment, either going down the sink or when they pass through the system. Interestingly, um, you know, if you take an antibiotic, if you're not feeling too good, a large proportion of that will enter into the environment still active. So it is a concern in relation to how all chemicals uh invariably end up in the environment in some concentration.
SPEAKER_00Jean Hobbs, one of our colleagues in the office, did a recent podcast talking about the work um that she does in Rings End, one of our biggest wastewater treatment plant. And she said that only pea, paper, and poo should go down our loo when we're flushing the toilet. Is that important just to keep it to those things?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's a very it's a very strong message, and I think uh individually we all have a responsibility to keep to that if we can. The reality of it is that any chemical, whether it's a household product or a cosmetic or a pharmaceutical, uh, if it's if it's going into the system uh and into a wastewater treatment plant, invariably some residues uh can find their way into drinking water. And that is something that our monitoring programs are very, very targeted to in clearly understanding what impacts, uh what concentrations of what species are in uh the environment and invariably can end up in our drinking water and potentially it could be of concern.
SPEAKER_00So the message is just really think about what you're flushing down the loo, what you're putting into your sink, and just really take precautions really to just take care, I think, is the is what you're saying.
SPEAKER_01It is. It's a very, it's a very it's it's a strong message for the individual. We all have individual responsibility on trying to do what's right by the environment.
SPEAKER_00Um there's a lot in the media and uh in Europe about pesticides and monitoring for pesticides that are getting into our water network, and also businesses who might be putting chemicals into the network. What's our perspective in relation to how farmers can take more precautions, or can they?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's that's a very good question. So um first of all, uh the use of pesticides is is a legal activity uh in this country. Uh pesticides are regulated by the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine through the pesticides registration division. And we have a very good working relationship with the key stakeholders uh in relation to pesticides, and that's a forum called the National Pesticides Drinking Water Action Group. And we we meet uh at least on a quarterly basis in the backwestern campus in Telbridge. And Ishgarin takes a very proactive role here in terms of communicating and communicating directly to farmers in relation to the correct application of pesticides. And farmers use pesticides uh in order to improve yields of their products and in order to ensure that their pastures are free from weeds, whether they be uh thistles, docks, uh rushes, etc. And so the key message we're giving to farmers is that they apply the pesticides at the correct rate and they apply the pesticides at the correct time. So, i.e., that you know, not to apply them when it's windy, for example, or not to apply them on land that's wet or when there's an expected deluge. And what we're trying to do there is to ensure that there isn't any pesticide runoff into water courses. Uh, because if the pesticides run off into water courses, they can find their way into our drinking water treatment plants and pesticide residue can end up being detected in our drinking water samples.
SPEAKER_00And who monitors? I mean, we have obviously the Environmental Protection Agency, who are our environmental regulator. Um, what are the EPA monitoring for when they you know test water samples? What are they looking for?
SPEAKER_01So I suppose first of all, the EPA uh do a lot of catchment monitoring, but it's Ishke Aaron that actually monitors uh the drinking water quality. And we report those results uh to the EPA on an annual basis. And the EPA use those results in terms of their annual drinking water report. So currently it's at about 99.7% uh compliance.
SPEAKER_0099.7% compliant water is a very, very good result. And I know from reading all of the reports across the world, there are lots of countries that don't have anywhere near that uh level of compliance. What do you put that level of compliance down to?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so uh DPA are our regulator. Uh they have roles under the drinking water regulations in enforcement. They also have a role in essentially approving uh what we monitor for. So we have a very uh good relationship with the agency. We devise uh monitoring programs in accordance with the drinking water regulations, and the EPA have power of audit uh to look at exactly what we're monitoring for and to make sure that they're compliant with the drinking water regulations. Um, our drinking water monitoring programs are expanding all the time. We're adding uh new parameters this year. We're taking a new approach in terms of our drinking water monitoring. So we're moving away from the one size fits all way we used to do it. Uh, now to start looking at the risk profile of each catchment, the risk profile of each of our water treatment plants, and starting to design uh bespoke monitoring programs. This does obviously add a lot of complexity to the way we do our monitoring, but it is the right approach, and it's us moving away from uh a very reactive approach to being far more proactive in terms of our monitoring.
SPEAKER_00Um I did read somewhere recently that, you know, even things like cocaine and cannabis and all of those things are ending up in our water sources as well. How do we find out about that in Ishka Ern? Like, how do we know?
SPEAKER_01Well, we are aware that the HEC have a particular interest in looking at, I suppose, the questionable habits of people on the weekends. And the way they monitor for it is that they test the wastewater outfalls from a lot of our treatment plants. And they do share the results with us, and they are quite interesting. But we do have to be careful to look at this in perspective. And um, you know, it can be quite sensational to say that there's cocaine being found in our rivers, and that potentially could find its way into our drinking water, and potentially it could. What the HEC are doing is they are looking for traces of cocaine, and the what they're monitoring for is a compound called benzylekinine. Uh, and what the point I'm trying to get across here is while cocaine might be pharmacologically active, uh, once it passes through the system and is metabolized by the liver, it forms a non-pharmacological active compound called benzykinine. So even though it's sensationalist, there is actually no public health impact on it. Now, clearly undesirable if we find it in drinking water. And the idea of drinking water treatment is to remove these compounds before you know people have a glass of water in the morning.
SPEAKER_00So it's 99.7 compliant. You've taken us through all of the different things that can get into the water. How confident can the public be in drinking water straight from the top in Ireland? Would we say very confident?
SPEAKER_01I would say extremely confident. And the reason behind that is is twofold. The the water treatment plants and our operations colleagues in Ishgarn are doing a fantastic job in ensuring that water is potable and safe to drink. Then environmental regulation have a very, very comprehensive monitoring program uh in terms of the amount of samples that we take and a very, very comprehensive assessment of the data when it comes in. If there is any uh concern in terms of any um exceedance to the drinking water regulations, we then consult with the with the HSE. And if the advice that comes back that a water restriction is warranted, we then put on that water restriction. So sometimes a plant will fail, or sometimes mistakes happen. But what's critical is that the right thing is done. And if we have to put on a boil water notice to protect public health, then we do that. And we're very active in this space. Water restrictions are often called the final barrier. They're the final barrier because what we're trying to do is ensure that public health is protected. While they're undesirable, and the numbers of boil water notices and restrictions, thankfully, are going down, and the duration of boil water notices or do not consume notices is decreasing all the time. We have a fundamental duty in doing the right thing and protecting public health.
SPEAKER_00And Pat, one of the things that's fascinating is your own background in relation to how you got into a role where made you in charge of compliant water in the country with, I know, a very good team. What kind of uh study did you do qualifications? How did you become a doctor in this space?
SPEAKER_01Well, I'm from I'm from Clare. Um I live very, very close to the burn, and um I'm sure you've been there many times. But the burn is sculpted by water, it's sculpted from the ice age, and all the features, all the clints and gripes that you see in the uh and the pavement, that's formed by rainwater, which is, you know, it can be described as a mild carbonic acid uh in scientific terms. So I was always fascinated by the sheer power of water and uh always interested in the environment. So I was very much um, you know, always moving towards the sciences, and chemistry seemed to be the right fit. But I was unsure whether I wanted to be an engineer or whether I wanted to be a chemist. So I kind of went halfway house and I went and I did industrial chemistry in the University of Limerick, and I followed that on by doing uh a PhD in physical and analytical chemistry.
SPEAKER_00So you're in your dream job, are you?
SPEAKER_01Very much so. Yeah, I I I would have to say that. So, you know, it's something that uh I'm I'm quite passionate about. Um I'm very fortunate in that we have an extremely strong uh team, a really excellent mix of scientists and engineers. Uh we're building up uh our drinking water safety plan team. Uh that that was a significant achievement last year. So there's 60 really, really you know, strong professionals uh working in the space who equally share my passion in terms of uh ensuring that we're doing the right thing. And we're we're we are so conscious of our role in terms of public health.
SPEAKER_00All of the things that are in our water, so the testing itself, so the extent of the testing that's going on, how do we go about the testing? How much of it are we are we doing?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so uh the the first thing about the testing is to devise the plan, the monitoring plan. And a lot of it is is outlined in legislation. It tells us what we should be monitoring for, and it tells us um how often we should be doing it. Um simply, you know, the larger the scheme, the more tests that's going to be done. Um previously that was a very um reactive way. We reacted to failure. So, you know, if we took a sample and we have to take it at the customer's tap, it's called a point of compliance, we would then react. But you're reacting to failure. So now our monitoring plans are evolving where we're looking at the risk profile of the catchment, we're looking at the risk profile of the water treatment plant itself in terms of what it's trying to deal with. And we're adjusting our monitoring plans uh to be more accountable to that risk. So, therefore, you know, there will be more monitoring at schemes of higher risk and less monitoring for schemes of lower risk. Now, unfortunately, that's going to bring in a lot of complexity because instead of having kind of one size fits all, we're going to end up with bespoke monitoring plans for each of our water supply zones. So we're going to end up with, uh, and I know a lot of the team kind of shudder when I talk about the direction we're going in, but we're going to end up with about 700 individual monitoring plans. But that's the right and proper thing to do because our monitoring plans then are going to be more designed to the risk profile that that's presented.
SPEAKER_00I have a vision in my head of little Petri dishes and people in white coats in labs. Is that the right picture in terms of the kind of tests we're doing and the clean environment you have to do these tests in?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's not, it's it's not far off, but it's only part of it. So a lot of analysis is done by our operations colleagues in the plants. Um the online instrumentation that they have, you know, in terms of monitoring uh key characteristics like pH or the turbidity of water, they're all available on site. So that monitoring is almost to the second. And then there's the other monitoring in terms of what's going on in our reservoirs, what's going on in our network, what's going on at our consumers' tab. So those samples are taken. Um, at the moment it's been done by third parties, but we're rapidly moving to a situation where we're going to be taking all that in-house. And Cotleason and her team are doing a fabulous job uh with the Limerick Laboratory. And we're going to bring the vast bulk of that in-house. So that's so the samplers, there'll be Ishke Airin uh vans out on the road, Ishke Aaron staff taking samples. That'll be all in the main, brought back to the Limerick Laboratory, and all the suites of testing will be done in the Limerick Laboratory. So this is a fantastic um movement in the right direction as far as I'm concerned.
SPEAKER_00Um, there's a lot of discussion about lead in drinking water and certainly getting the attention in Europe too, to make sure that, you know, networks around the world are lead-free. Um, tell me a little bit about the lead situation in Ireland.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Lead is um is one of those things that's kind of without us since Roman times, since they figured out how lead was so malleable and they were able to make uh flat sheets and then roll it, and they use that then to transport pipes. And so it's been around for since then, really, in some shape or form. Uh it is obviously a neurological toxin. Um, and the I suppose if we look from Michigan Aaron's perspective, uh it's it's not in any appreciable concentration in our in our source waters. Uh it doesn't get introduced in the treatment plants, and our public mains is free from lead. There is two there's two outstanding items in relation to lead. So the the short service connections from our public mains to the household, some of older houses, and really it's stock that's pre-1950s, some say it's up to 1970s. Um some of those houses may still have a lead connection. Now we have removed the vast bulk of them, but we have we have, we, we're getting better at identifying the residual few that are left. And where we identify them, we remove them. The biggest issue in relation to lead is actually on the domestic side. And uh Ishgarn do not have a responsibility here, uh, but we do have responsibility in terms of of um reinforcing the message to the householder in terms of identifying lead if you have it, making them aware of the uh the government grants that are there in terms of removing the lead. And if they still choose not to do anything, that we provide in conjunction with the HUC the best possible advice we can as regards uh reducing the risk of exposure to lead. So it's a very active space. We have a lot of stakeholders involved. Yeah. Um, it falls under the whole uh implementation of the drinking water regs. So we're working closely with the HEC and the EPA uh and other state bodies.
SPEAKER_00And if I'm listening to this podcast and I think, gosh, my network around my home could be from the 1950s of an old house. Um how would you recognize a lead pipe?
SPEAKER_01Well, I suppose the easiest way is just to look under your kitchen tap. And if you see a kind of uh silvery grey sort of uh metal, uh that's probably lead. You know, uh it's not copper, it's not plastic, uh, it's probably lead. So if you do identify it and you're concerned about it, uh contact your plumber in the first instance, see what they can do in terms of uh the replacement, um, have a look at the government websites in terms of the available lead grants, uh, and you know, seriously consider taking the opportunity to uh remove it from your house.
SPEAKER_00So we'd actively ask people to kind of really check it out uh with their plumber. And take take steps to remove lead bibing from their own.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. Like where Ishgearin can can assist, and we will assist is in terms of the communications and the advice, etc. Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the homeowner to remediate any domestic distribution system that may contain lead themselves.
SPEAKER_00The world you work in, Pat, and we work in in Ishgarn, is a great for acronyms. One of the acronyms we see coming up in relation to drinking water is THMs. You might tell us a little bit about what it is a THM?
SPEAKER_01A THM. So that's a trihalomethane.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_01And I suppose where does it come from? So a lot of our source waters can contain organic material. And there's another term. Organic material is essentially something that's biological in nature. It can be, it can be a bit of a leaf, a bit of a twig, a bit of a bit of sediment that contains organic material. Once that enters our water treatment plants, if our water treatment plants can't really can't remove it can't remove it or can't remove enough of it, it can then react with chlorine, which we need for disinfection and which is uh which is far more important than any issues in relation to THMs, it can form THMs. So there is some concern. Uh jury is a little bit out as regards uh the health impact of THMs, but they are clearly undesirable. They are a regulated entity. Uh, there is uh a limit set out in the drinking water regulations, and we have to comply with the drinking water regular regulations. So this comes down to the removal efficiency of organic material at our water treatment plants. And Ishgearin has been making huge strides over the over the years in terms of THM compliance, and we're really down to the last few plants now in terms of achieving full compliance with the drinking water regulations. So um it really is a success story for Ishgar. And if you look back on our progress over the last 10 years in improving THMs, um, we have invested an awful lot of uh of capital. Uh, there's been an awful lot of training, and I think the results are starting to bear fruit.
SPEAKER_00There's another one that does the rounds on the old acronyms PFAS. Um I'm not even going to attempt to spell out that word, but what's PFAS and why is that important?
SPEAKER_01So PFAS, uh these are classic compounds. They're the PER and poly uh alkyl substances, and uh they really are a feature of our industrial age. Uh the the first uh the first uh main PFAS compound um in uh was was probably invented back in in the 1930s. Uh and one of the most common ones would be uh would be uh PF PFOS, I think, uh, which is Teflon. So we're all familiar with our non stick cookware, which has Teflon, but practically every single product uh that you look at contains PFAS. Uh it really is a feature of the times we live in, whether they're cosmetics, uh whether they're uh uh rainproof clothing, um they can they can be um in um pizza boxes, you name it. They're they're they're they're they're literally everywhere. It really is a feature of the industrial age. The problem with PFAS compounds is at their heart they have a they have a carbon-fluorine bond, which is extremely resilient. And it doesn't, it doesn't really get broken down in the environment, or if it does, it tends to break down into smaller chains, which can be problematic. The World Health Air Organization are currently working, uh they're doing some work for the European Commission in terms of understanding the health impacts uh of these compounds, and we will take guidance from that. So it is going to be a dynamic regulatory environment in terms of certain PFAS, they may impact on us. Now, we have been monitoring for PFAS compounds uh all of last year, and we're not seeing it as an issue yet, but it's a watching space. Other countries are getting very proactive in it. France, for example, has banned a lot of PFAS containing compounds in terms of uh cosmetics, uh, waterproof clothing, etc. Denmark is going down that road, and there is going to be upcoming legislation uh in terms of packaging uh regulation to remove PFAS. So a lot of good work has been done in terms of removing the source contamination uh potentially from PFAS. Um, but we have to keep a watching brief. We may have to add some treatment down the line, not yet. It seems to be contained, but that's a feature of our industrial um uh landscape. You know, we don't manufacture PFAS, but very much a watching brief, and our monitoring programs are very active in terms of looking for PFAS in all our drinking water samples.
SPEAKER_00Pat, um, I think the other thing really that comes in a lot to the conversation about water and I suppose drinking water and compliance is a lot of the directives now that are coming from the EU. So the EU are looking at standards around the world as to what is compliant water. There's lots happening in Europe. What is going on in relation to maybe new standards and parameters coming in?
SPEAKER_01The the the drinking water regulations have been recently updated, and that was essentially um uh uh it probably took 10 years for the E for the Commission in terms of updating the old standards, which were from 2014. So they were transposed into Irish law uh via directive um in 2023, and they've actually since been amended. So one thing of note from if you compare the 2014 regulations to the 2023 regulations is the new parameters that have been added and the focus on um risk and the focus on moving from reactive, reacting to failure, to being more proactive and getting an understanding of where the failures may occur before they happen. Um, so this is a piece of work that was done uh by the Commission. Member states obviously contributed to it, and so did uh World Health Organization. Uh one of the main contributors to it was Professor John Fall, and uh you might have met him at uh Pat to Compliance Conference, which was the first ever drinking water uh conference, uh, which was something that we we were really, really proud of, and it shows the how how we, in terms of our business, are in lockstep to what's happening in the in the regulatory environment.
SPEAKER_00Pat, in Ishgarn, obviously, we have a lot of things we measure, and we have our what we call our balanced scorecard, which is the targets that we set internally across all of our different things that we do from leakage to drink and water compliance. What's on the agenda for 2026 in terms of a focus and a measure for drinking water quality? Like what's on your mind most about the year ahead?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um so the balanced scorecard, um, there's there's two main items in terms of what compliance looks at, and that is the the overall uh microbiological and uh chemical compliance of our water supplies, and also the number of schemes that we remove from the remedial action list. Now, uh while we look at those figures, that is a that is a business activity from all our colleagues in operations, uh infrastructural delivery, um, asset management. It really is a collective effort. So when when when everybody is looking at the balanced scorecard at the end of the year and see the slow uptick and continual improvement in drinking water quality, we all need to take uh you know to take some credit in that. Um, interestingly, on the remedial action list, uh, the EPA are going to be changing that this year. We're having a lot of conversations on them. So the remedial action list is going to start moving more towards a resilience action list. Uh it's going to track the the central focus of the drinking water regulations as we move from failure to more risk-based approach. So uh the whole issue of the RAL is is going to change slightly. The numbers are going to increase, um, but it's going to be it's going to be a far better position because uh Ishke Aaron are actually going to be more in control of what schemes are going going on the RAL rather than the EPA. So I think that's entirely positive.
SPEAKER_00Um in Ishgeairon we talk a lot of acronyms and things that people mightn't understand. Explain for people what the RAL or the Remedial Action List actually is.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So the Remedial Action List has been there for many, many years. And it's been there actually before Ishgarn uh were established. It's it's a mechanism that the EPA have been using uh to basically direct funding. What they're saying is this scheme is failing, you need to sort it out, you need to invest in it. This is your priority. So this is our the regulator telling the water supplier where their focus should be on a compliance perspective only. Um and that has been slowly going down over the years, but it's reached the point where it's no longer reflective of the drinking water regulations. Uh, there needs to be more focus on the risk-based approach, and the we're going to retain the acronym, but we're going to change words. So it's going to remove from the remedial action list to the resilience action list. But as I said, Ishke Aaron will actually be providing the data to the EPA, we'll be saying to our regulator, these are the schemes that we see of high risk, low resilience. And this is where our focus is going to be. And the agency then is going to track our focus on it. So we entirely welcome this approach. There is going to be some um some adjustment because the list is going to increase, but that's okay.
SPEAKER_00And people will be reading in the newspapers about how we're performing on the rack the action lists. And the EPA obviously published that. And for people who are interested, it's all online, just in terms of really understanding a little bit more about what's in our drinking water. So fascinating conversation, Pat. I feel uh there's such knowledge and expertise in you and your team, and I feel in SafeFans, even though I don't necessarily understand all of the different acronyms, but I'm glad all of you and your team are really focused on it. So thank you for that for keeping the public safe and having 99.7% drinking water compliance. It really is a fantastic achievement for this country. That's it for this episode of Ishka Matters. If you enjoyed it, don't forget to like, follow, and subscribe. And if you're new, there are previous episodes waiting for you. Find Ishka Matters on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and wherever you get your podcasts.