Action is required to maintain our water quality

Taking steps to ensure water quality is maintained, and protect against environmental changes are highlighted in a report, writes Donal Hickey

RISKS to drinking water supplies, threats to flood alleviation and protection of sensitive environmental sites are issues highlighted in a new water quality report.

EU plans to greatly increase agriculture output, particularly diary productions, are likely to impact on many pristine water supply sites such as rivers and lakes.

And local authorities and other public bodies have been advised the provision of essential services. such as water supply and flood controls, need to be balanced with future development plans.

Some of the best natural water resources are in Kerry, Cork and Donegal while Dublin, Limerick, Kildare and Meath, along with other counties, have very poor water ratings.

A need for a major overhaul of existing arrangements in Ireland, to comply with the EU’s most important piece of water legislation— the Water Framework Directive — in Ireland, is highlighted in the latest report on water quality.

Up to now, many of the arrangements in place here do not match up to EU demands on environmental policies and have, either, not been effective enough or just too fragmented.

The Environmental Protection Agency research report worrying shows a decrease in quality in some water sources previously rated as “pristine”.

It has warned the continued loss of such sites shows deficiencies in the overall national approach.

The “most striking decline” is the seven-fold drop in highest-rated sites, which accounted for only 2% of all surveyed sites, in 2009. Generally reflecting high quality river water, these sites can support sensitive species, such as the freshwater pearl mussel and juvenile salmon.

“While serious pollution has decreased significantly in the period 1987-2008, and the rate of increase in the channel length classified as being in moderate and poor status has been reduced, there has been a dramatic loss of the best quality high status sites,” the report says.

Halting the loss of pristine waters can be tackled by addressing small impacts, it suggests.

By addressing the impacts was much more cost effective than restoring “poor” quality water sites to “good” quality sites on a large-scale.

To remedy the problem, the report calls for work to tackle field drainage and use of fertilisers, forestry practices, one-off housing, wind farms, animal access to waters and sheep dip pesticides.

It stresses the most urgent response is needed from local and public authorities until new mechanisms are in place.

The report further calls for a review of existing legislation, for a look at best practices in other EU states and for new ways of protecting high-status water.

To date, the key focus in implementing the WFD here has been on the objective that all water should reach “good” status by 2015, but the objective that there should not be any deterioration has received for less attention.

Importantly, the report points out, a small quantity of polluting material can cause much more damage to high quality water than the same amount can do to an already polluted system.

Almost 2,000 rivers are monitored, with 9% classified as high status; 222 lakes, with 9% also classified as such, and 161 estuary and coastal waters, with 27% rated at high status.

Counties Cork, Kerry, Clare, Donegal, Galway, Mayo, Sligo and Wicklow have the highest number of ‘high status’ sites while there are none, at all, in counties Carlow, Dublin, Kildare, Kilkenny, Limerick, Louth, Monaghan, Meath, and Westmeath.

The highest number, 150, is in Cork, followed by Kerry at 134 and Donegal at 83.

However, the number of high-status rivers nationally has declined from 43% to 27% between 1998 and 2011.

In order to tackle a serious environmental issue, the report recommends that all planning decisions in areas with high-status water should be referred for assessment to environmental departments in local and public authorities.

The report underlines essential services provided by such areas, including drinking water, flood alleviation, and scenic surroundings which need to be balanced with future development.

Such waters can also be highly sensitive to what might be seen as minor, localised impacts, such as seepage from poorly functioning septic tanks, it states. County development plans should also protect these sites, it urges.

In addition to the impact of septic tanks, the report refers to the relatively recent spread of wind farms in upland areas, as Ireland strives to reach the EU target of getting 16% of all energy, nationally, from renewable sources by 2016.

Possible negative impacts of wind farms include the movement of sediment into water bodies.

The report recommends that planning for wind farms should include studies into their environmental impacts on water quality.

In relation to agriculture, it emphasises a need to link the objectives of farming and rural development with the preservation of water quality and the protection of a sensitive environment.

Serious concern is raised about EU plans to increase agricultural output by 2020, including a 50% jump in dairy production which “can only increase the pressure on aquatic resources across the country, with likely further impact on high-status sites”.

Risks posed to water by commercial forestry are also highlighted, while the report welcomes the drafting of a new Forestry Bill which should ensure the protection of sensitive habitats.

Diagnosis and recommendation

A declining pearl mussel population in a Kerry river is a telltale sign of reduced water quality due to more intensive farming, forestry and other activities, according to the report.

The Caragh and its tributaries are highly protected within a candidate Special Area of Conservation. Pearl mussels require high status water to be healthy, but are in an ‘’unfavourable condition’’ in the Caragh, says the EPA report.

There has been a significant deterioration in the condition of the Caragh since 2007. None of the 39 sites surveyed in the area is at the highest status.

Located within the Killarney National Park catchment, the river drains the southern slopes of the MacGillycuddy Reeks and flows through Lough Caragh, pictured above, before entering the sea at Rossbeigh Creek, in Dingle Bay.

Overgrazing of commonage, leading to large amounts of sediment entering water, is given as one of the main causes of the decline. About a third of the land in the overall catchment area is commonage, 9% of which is damaged.

River bank and site clearance work, as well as drainage — aimed at improving grassland — are also contributing to problems, resulting in more sediment loading in sensitive rivers and erosion of river banks.

The report points out that agricultural activity that resulted in damage is not currently under the control of the agricultural regulations, but should have been prevented by the National Parks and Wildlife Service under habitats regulations.

In relation to forestry, the report notes that most tree-planting has taken place in the most sensitive areas of the Caragh catchment.

Pressures from forestry, including fertilisation, sediment discharge, and use of pesticides, also have the potential to impact on the catchment.

The report calls for a survey of septic tanks in places where there is a risk to surface water.

Key pressures to be addressed, according to the report, include an anomaly whereby farmers are rewarded financially to carry out damaging operations.

Requirements for farmers to maintain land in order to receive EU payments conflict with the need not to carry out work likely to result in negative effects on the environment.

Large blocks of forestry in the Caragh catchment are reaching maturity and it may not be possible to fell some areas without serious damage, the report warns. The ‘’least damaging approach’’ is recommended through agreement between the landowners, the regulator and the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

The report also urges that new housing and other developments need to show that they will not further damage river habitats.

Concluding, the report says the Caragh and its tributaries have their fill of sediment and polluting nutrients and land-use intensity needs to be cut.