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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has told county councils to conduct more inspections on farms to help improve water quality and to better follow up with farmers after possible water quality issues are identified.
The EPA’s local authority environmental enforcement report for 2021 shows that the number of local authority farm inspections dropped from 2,730 in 2020 to 2,520 last year.
The move comes as the EPA’s enforcement head Dr Tom Ryan called for an escalation of action in following up non-compliances, where needed.
Three local authorities - Cork, Kilkenny and Meath county councils – were reported to have achieved an excellent result in the area of agricultural inspections, while seven received the poorest rating possible due to low levels of farm inspections and enforcement actions.
These were the Clare, Cork City, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, Mayo, Offaly, South Dublin and Sligo councils.
What is the EPA looking for?
The EPA stated that local authorities must increase the number of farm inspections in the areas which pose greatest risk to water quality and follow up on issues identified during farm inspections.
The report also suggested that authorities monitor all private water supplies in order to allow drinking water standards to be properly enforced when monitoring identified non-compliances in order to protect human health.
They need to have a better focus on priority environmental issues
Dr Ryan stated that there is room for improvement in local authorities, citing declining water quality trends in his comments.
“While local authorities are engaged in a great deal of enforcement activity, they need to have a better focus on priority environmental issues and increase or escalate enforcement action where required,” said Ryan.
Manager of environmental enforcement at the EPA David Pollard recognised the need for councils to use farm inspection resources more efficiently.
“Local authorities continue to carry out extensive water quality monitoring. However, there is scope to make better use of this monitoring to target enforcement action aimed at improving water quality,” Pollard said.
Private inspectors
Meanwhile, it is understood that two county councils have sought to recruit “suitably qualified contract staff” from the private sector to inspect farms.
Laois County Council and Donegal County Council both opened tenders seeking farm inspectors for an initial period of up to three months.
The tenders state that the Department of Housing has allocated “short-term funding” to local authorities to better supply efforts aimed at improving water quality in high-risk water areas.
“The resources for this work will be drawn from the private sector and this contract is for the engagement of suitably qualified contract staff to carry out the required inspections in various catchments within Donegal County Council’s functional area,” the Co Donegal tender reads.
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