Poor water quality could cost millions in EU fines

IRELAND risks facing millions of euro in EU fines over poor water quality after a report by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found more than half of groundwater supplies were contaminated with human or animal waste.

The opposition said water quality should be regarded as the biggest environmental issue after the report found a third of rivers are polluted, despite some improvements in recent years.

The EPA report said 66 lakes and 15 estuaries are not up to standard.

Fine Gael’s Environment spokesman Phil Hogan said: “Poor water quality affects health, livelihoods, amenities and ecology. Accordingly, water must be afforded the highest level of priority, protection and resources, otherwise Ireland will not be in compliance with the EU directive on habitats or the water framework directive and face millions of euro in fines.”

Mr Hogan said it is “totally unacceptable” that water quality is not satisfactory and called on Environment Minister John Gormley to “mobilise all resources, private and public, to meet the commitments of the EU water framework directive”.

He said resources should be focused on improving the standard of municipal waste water plants at 21 locations and protecting and improving the quality of ground water by targeting agriculture and septic tanks.

Labour Party environment spokeswoman Joanna Tuffy said: “There were hopes that as the Green Party took control of key ministries in the Government, that we would at last see some real movement towards getting our burgeoning environmental problems under control.”

Ms Tuffy urged Mr Gormley to bring forward legislation which will require local authorities to develop water plans and to increase the monitoring of waters and “the ongoing publication of data in a user-friendly manner”.