Agriculture is under fire after the release of an Environment Protection Agency (EPA) report showing that nitrogen and phosphorus from farm practices have caused a “significant” drop in Irish water quality.
The five-year report, shows that Ireland’s pristine river sites have dropped from over 500 in the late 1980s to just 20 at present.
Agriculture and waste water are the main sources of nutrients
EPA director Matt Crowe said: “Positive trends reported previously by the EPA have reversed. Not only are we failing to improve overall water quality, we are also failing to prevent further deterioration of our rivers.
“Of particular concern in the most recent assessment is the increase in nutrients [nitrogen and phosphorus] finding their way into our water bodies.
“Agriculture and waste water are the main sources of nutrients. Over a quarter of river sites monitored have increasing nutrient levels and nutrient loads to the marine environment have also increased.”
Pressure from forestry sites was also highlighted in the report.
Cow numbers
A spokesperson for the EPA told RTÉ that nutrient run-off from fertiliser spreading and increased cow numbers had contributed to the deteriorating quality of rivers.
Waste water was also highlighted as an issue and blamed on the rise in human population.
IFA president Joe Healy has said that farmers are taking active measures to improve water quality and that more needs to be done to tackle the illegal pumping of raw sewage.
“Ireland stands guilty before the ECJ of one water quality issue and that’s non-compliance with the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive, which was introduced almost 20 years ago. This has led to raw sewage with high phosphorous and nitrogen concentrations from the equivalent of 77,000 people being released into our waters every day," Healy said.
Farmers are the custodians of the rural environment
“Ireland’s water quality is amongst the best in Europe, this is something to be proud of. However, images of raw sewage going into our rivers and streams take from this. Farmers will continue to take part in schemes such as GLAS and voluntary schemes such as the ASSAP programme. After all, farmers are the custodians of the rural environment.”
Key points highlighted by the report include:
92% of groundwater bodies, 80% of coastal waters, 53% of rivers, 50% of lakes and 38% of estuaries were found to be of satisfactory quality.Since the last full assessment, river water quality deteriorated, with a net decline of 5.5% (128 water bodies) in the status of river water bodies.We are continuing to see a loss of the pristine (‘best of the best’) river water bodies. There are now just 20 pristine river sites down from over 500 sites in the late 1980s. The number of seriously polluted river water bodies (the ‘worst of the worst’) has started to rise – from six to nine.The number of fish kills increased to 40 in 2018 after a historic low of 14 in 2017. It is likely that the hot summer and low flow conditions in 2018 had an impact on this.
Agriculture is under fire after the release of an Environment Protection Agency (EPA) report showing that nitrogen and phosphorus from farm practices have caused a “significant” drop in Irish water quality.
The five-year report, shows that Ireland’s pristine river sites have dropped from over 500 in the late 1980s to just 20 at present.
Agriculture and waste water are the main sources of nutrients
EPA director Matt Crowe said: “Positive trends reported previously by the EPA have reversed. Not only are we failing to improve overall water quality, we are also failing to prevent further deterioration of our rivers.
“Of particular concern in the most recent assessment is the increase in nutrients [nitrogen and phosphorus] finding their way into our water bodies.
“Agriculture and waste water are the main sources of nutrients. Over a quarter of river sites monitored have increasing nutrient levels and nutrient loads to the marine environment have also increased.”
Pressure from forestry sites was also highlighted in the report.
Cow numbers
A spokesperson for the EPA told RTÉ that nutrient run-off from fertiliser spreading and increased cow numbers had contributed to the deteriorating quality of rivers.
Waste water was also highlighted as an issue and blamed on the rise in human population.
IFA president Joe Healy has said that farmers are taking active measures to improve water quality and that more needs to be done to tackle the illegal pumping of raw sewage.
“Ireland stands guilty before the ECJ of one water quality issue and that’s non-compliance with the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive, which was introduced almost 20 years ago. This has led to raw sewage with high phosphorous and nitrogen concentrations from the equivalent of 77,000 people being released into our waters every day," Healy said.
Farmers are the custodians of the rural environment
“Ireland’s water quality is amongst the best in Europe, this is something to be proud of. However, images of raw sewage going into our rivers and streams take from this. Farmers will continue to take part in schemes such as GLAS and voluntary schemes such as the ASSAP programme. After all, farmers are the custodians of the rural environment.”
Key points highlighted by the report include:
92% of groundwater bodies, 80% of coastal waters, 53% of rivers, 50% of lakes and 38% of estuaries were found to be of satisfactory quality.Since the last full assessment, river water quality deteriorated, with a net decline of 5.5% (128 water bodies) in the status of river water bodies.We are continuing to see a loss of the pristine (‘best of the best’) river water bodies. There are now just 20 pristine river sites down from over 500 sites in the late 1980s. The number of seriously polluted river water bodies (the ‘worst of the worst’) has started to rise – from six to nine.The number of fish kills increased to 40 in 2018 after a historic low of 14 in 2017. It is likely that the hot summer and low flow conditions in 2018 had an impact on this. 
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