Pollution app won’t clean up

A NEW way of reporting pollution is welcome, but tricky. An iPhone app, launched by the EPA, makes it easy to contact your local authority, on-the-spot, with a complaint.

But councils, the statutory guardians of our water and the environment, can be significant polluters — discharging untreated or inadequately treated waste into rivers, lakes and seas, for instance.

What if councils are the culprits? It’s back to the EPA, which has the power to initiate prosecutions against councils.

At the Circuit Court, last November, Cavan County Council was fined €260,000 for failing to ensure that odours were not a nuisance at a landfill. Oxigen Environmental Limited was fined €780,000 from the same circumstances.

Via the new App, people can report pollution, including backyard burning, illegal dumping, water pollution, odours and littering, the moment they see it. They can send a photograph of the pollution and a short message to the relevant local authority.

The app complements the 24-hour nationwide environmental complaints phoneline — 1850-365121. So, you can now report issues by using the iPhone app, or by phoning the complaints line. The County and City Managers’ Association said it “greatly welcomes’’ the app, which should enable a rapid response to complaints.

Pollution of water sources by animal, human, or industrial waste has yet to be treated with the urgency it deserves — as the EU regularly reminds us — to ensure the water we drink is safe and free from pollution. The EPA has voiced concerns about lack of inspections by councils of rural schemes.

There are concerns about the quality of drinking water and an ESRI report, for example, found that most households in Ireland have been supplied with contaminated water that was not up to EU standards.

A lack of funding has delayed work on many necessary sewage-treatment works. The ESRI 2012 review warned that a projected 50% expansion of dairy production would make things worse for many water bodies already subject to high levels of pollution.

It also warned that growing waste volumes will creature further pressures — up 24% for household waste alone. And, with increased waste-disposal charges, we can also expect more littering and illegal dumping. It could be a very busy app.

To find out more about making an environmental complaint, visit the EPA website at: www.epa.ie/whatwedo/enforce/report/.