The Environment Protection Agency (EPA) has for the first time published details of agri-businesses which “abstract” the equivalent of 150 bathtubs of water a day.
An abstraction is the removal or diversion of water from a river, lake, stream, spring, groundwater well, borehole or estuary, for any purpose.
The list of agri-businesses are included in the new EPA water abstraction register which details all water abstractions of 25,000 litres (25 cubic meters) a day.
The August register includes more than 2,900 businesses, individuals and co-ops which abstract more than 25,000 litres a day.
The agency estimates that a farm with 200 dairy cows, or a housing estate with 42 households, would use the equivalent of around 150 bathtubs of day.
According to the EPA water abstractions “need to be registered so that our rivers, lakes, estuaries, and groundwaters can be managed and protected for everyone’s benefit”.
By law any individual or business from a farm to a hotel, a golf course to a factory, must register an abstraction with the agency. The EPA aims to publish the new register twice a year.
But if any business or farm gets its water from Uisce Éireann (previously Irish Water) a local authority or a group scheme then they do not need to register this water as an abstraction.
In a statement issued to Agriland the EPA said that it had published the abstractions register following a recent decision by the Commissioner for Environmental Information “which provided clarity on the nature of the information that should be considered for publication on the register”.
The agency added: “The register contains information on water abstractions of 25 cubic meters or more per day that have been registered with the EPA and includes details of the abstractor, the abstraction type, the primary use, the volume abstracted and the water body from which the abstraction occurs.
“The EPA has redacted any personal data on the register, this includes some abstractions where the primary purpose is agricultural”.
The agency also confirmed that it will review the requirements of any new regulations in relation to the contents and publication of the register “when the regulations come into effect”.
Legislation relating to a licensing system for water abstractions is currently being developed by the Department for Housing, Local Government, and Heritage.