New inspectors for nitrates programme

The EPA’s 2022 Water Quality in Ireland report found only 54% of surface waters in satisfactory ecological health, with overall water quality declining. Only 36% of estuaries were in satisfactory condition.

An extra 57 inspectors are being hired for the nitrates action programme, as the implications of the European Commission’s tougher anti-pollution demands on Irish farmers sink in.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has produced a map for the commission. 

It shows more than 44,000sq km of land that requires additional measures to protect water quality. For farmers in these areas who applied for and were granted a nitrates derogation, the limit of organic nitrogen on their grassland area will be reduced from the derogation of 250kg per hectare per year to 220kg of nitrogen. 

This, and other additional measures, is to be applied by January 1, 2024 (unless an Irish request for flexibility is agreed by the commission).

Red map

According to Teagasc researchers, the combined effect of reducing the maximum organic nitrogen stocking rate from 250 to 220kg of organic nitrogen per ha, plus the cow banding in the nitrates action programme, could reduce dairy profitability by as much as 29%.

The “red” map shows areas draining to waterbodies where the EPA found that quality criteria specified by the commission have not been achieved (because the waterbodies are polluted, at risk of pollution, or deteriorating as a result of agricultural activities).

Ireland’s Fifth Nitrates Action Programme, published in March 2022, also required increased Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine inspections of farms, as part of an enhanced local authority inspection and enforcement programme.

The National Agricultural Inspection Programme has been established for this purpose and will be managed and co-ordinated by local authorities, with guidance and oversight by the EPA.

Only 11 full-time equivalent council staff were carrying out farm inspections across the country and 57 additional staff are required to deliver the target of over 4,000 agricultural inspections per year (inspections are believed to have fallen to fewer than 3,0000), and for follow-up enforcement.

Already funding has been allocated to 17 local authorities to recruit 21 additional inspection posts under the programme.

Inspection of derogation farms will increase from 5% to 10% of such farms.

The EPA will guide local authorities on targeting inspections where water quality is impacted or at risk of being impacted from agriculture, tracking the progress of the programme, and ensuring that appropriate guidance and training are provided to local authority inspectors.

Areas

Inspectors are likely to concentrate on the “red” map areas draining to polluted waterbodies. 

Included are all of counties Cavan, Roscommon, Longford, Westmeath, Offaly, Laois, Kildare, Kilkenny, Tipperary, and Carlow; most of counties Sligo, Leitrim, Monaghan, Louth, and Meath; and sizeable portions of counties Cork (mostly the areas between the Lee and Blackwater rivers, plus some of the Bandon river catchment), Kerry (most of mid-Kerry plus much of the area between Tralee and Ballyheigue), Waterford (most of the county north of Kilmacthomas, plus the Dungarvan hinterland), Wexford, Wicklow, Mayo, Galway, Clare (the area northeast of a line from Shannon to Black Head) and Limerick (most of the area south-east of a line from Broadford to Castletroy).

Least affected are counties Dublin and Donegal, with only areas north east of Letterkenny and near the border with Fermanagh included.

Water quality

The EPA’s 2022 Water Quality in Ireland report found only 54% of surface waters in satisfactory ecological health, with overall water quality declining. Only 36% of estuaries were in satisfactory condition.

Nitrate concentrations were too high in rivers, groundwater, and estuaries in the southeast, southwest and midlands and east.

Average nitrate concentrations had increased since 2012 in all water bodies. Nitrate concentrations were higher in 2022 than in 2021.

One in five of the EPA’s 187 groundwater monitoring sites had more than 25mg/l of nitrate, approaching the threshold where drinking water quality may be compromised. These sites were mostly in river catchments draining the southeast and southwest.

The groundwater threshold value of 37.5 mg/l was exceeded at 6% of groundwater monitoring sites in 2022.

One site had more than 50 mg/l (the drinking water quality threshold). It is used to supply drinking water, but has an appropriate water treatment system in place, said the EPA. However, the national average nitrate concentration in groundwater has gradually increased since 2012, albeit with year-on-year fluctuations.