Dr. Daire Ó hUallacháin:

I cannot really comment on how the EPA report its results but for a long time now, it has been reporting in relation to the concentration of water bodies. To allow comparison with previous data, it still needs to report on concentration. In more recent years and towards the end of year, it reports on the load from our 20 major catchments. It might be useful to wait until the end of the year to see what the load for this year is relative to last year and compare that to longer term trends. By providing both concentration and load, one gets a better overall picture of the amount of nutrients moving through the system.