The EPA is calling for county councils, including Waterford, to ramp up the amount of inspections they carry out in relation to pollution.
Ireland's water quality continues to deteriorate mainly due to agricultural waste, according to the EPA's latest report on the environmental performance of local authorities in 2021.
Waterford local authority's inspections of air and noise have been deemed 'Moderate', as have water and waste inspections.
For governance, they've been given the lowest grade of 'Limited'.
Programme Manager at the EPA's Office of Environmental Enforcement, David Pollard says other local authorities are more vigilant:
"No local authority performed excellently in everything," he explained, "and no local authority performed really poorly in everything.
"But, having said that, I suppose the top five performers are Dublin City Council, Kildare, Fingal, Leitrim, and Monaghan."
Continuing, Mr Pollard said that councils across the country have yet to resume the level of inspections that they were carrying out before the Covid pandemic hit.
"There just aren't enough inspections being carried out," he said.
"We're seeing inspection rates in the year of the report are still only 43% of what they were pre-pandemic.
"So there has been a fall-off during the pandemic that hasn't recovered.
"The other thing we're seeing is that local authorities aren't inspecting in the right place and looking for the right things.
"And, I suppose finally, what we're seeing is that there needs to be more follow-up."
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