If NI is able to get on a path to lower ammonia emissions from agriculture, it would create opportunities for new housing development on livestock farms, officials from the NI Environment Agency (NIEA) have said.

Answering questions at the Stormont Agriculture committee last Thursday, officials said they expect a finalised ammonia strategy to be with Agriculture Minister Andrew Muir later this spring.

That strategy will set out the actions required on farms to achieve a 30% reduction in emissions by 2030, when compared to 2020 levels. Initial proposals include a ban on use of splash plates on slurry tankers from 2026 and encouraging farmers to use lower crude protein levels in livestock diets.

“As we start to implement the ammonia strategy, emissions will come down, there will be less pressure on sites and then it means there will be more flexibility and room for development, because there will be environmental capacity. At the minute environmental capacity is limited,” Dr Sara McGuckin from NIEA told MLAs.

New advice

During the briefing at Stormont, NIEA officials were asked about the new parameters used to assess ammonia emissions in farm planning applications.

Previous standing advice (also known as the operational protocol) used by the NIEA deemed projects which contributed less than 1% of the critical levels of ammonia at designated sites and habitats, to be acceptable in terms of air quality.

In December 2023, that advice was dropped by DAERA on the back of a legal threat from the Office of Environmental Protection and instead a “nugatory 0.08%” ammonia threshold is now being used to inform the NIEA response to planners. Applications are now being assessed on a “site-specific” and “case-by-case” basis until the new ammonia strategy and updated standing advice is agreed.

However, the Department continues to use the existing 7.5km screening distance – only those farms over 7.5km from a designated site don’t have to do an air quality assessment (estimates suggest this applies to under 5% of the land area of NI).

Explain

At last weeks’ committee meeting, NIEA officials struggled to explain to MLAs how existing applications will now be assessed and the relevance of the “nugatory 0.08%” figure.

“I just want to provide some reassurance that the 1% significance threshold still applies,” said McGuckin.

The major change in approach is that NIEA had previously assessed the site on its own and as long as it contributed less than 1%, those emissions were not considered significant. However, as well as the individual emissions from the site, officials are now taking into account the “local environmental conditions and also the level of developmental pressure” in the area where the site is situated.

It means other planning projects with the area, above the 0.08% threshold, are included as part of an “in-combination assessment”.

“If in-combination – that is over 1%, then that would be flagged as a concern to the planning authority agents,” confirmed McGuckin.

NIEA adding resources to clear planning cases

Extra NIEA staff resources will be put towards clearing a backlog of planning cases, the organisation’s chief executive, David Reid confirmed.

He said NIEA was currently in receipt of 94 farm planning applications, of which 83 are already outside a statutory deadline for a response of either 21 days or 30 days.

According to NIEA officials, delays are partly due to the decision last December by DAERA to no longer rely on the existing ammonia operational protocol.

There are also some cases relating back to 2020 and 2021 that will now be assessed on a “case-by-case” basis.

Replacement

During his evidence, Reid was asked why farmers who are putting up a replacement shed, which will lead to lower farm ammonia emissions, don’t get assessed differently.

“The regulations don’t give any scope for us to consider any difference between new and replacement developments, but we do totally understand the frustration that this must cause,” responded Reid.

Monitoring on-going at Northway facility

The Northway Mushrooms composting facility outside Ballygawley in Co Tyrone continues to be subject to regular visits by NIEA inspectors to monitor and identify if there are non-compliances relating to odour, maintained Dr Richard Crowe.

At the start of the month, local residents protested outside the factory amid on-going concerns about the smell.

“We are very focused on this issue. We will be going as far as we can within our remit on this to move it forward. We do not want to see an environmental impact and a public health impact,” Crowe told MLAs last Thursday.