A “minority” of farmers are to blame for certain water pollution issues but “many small farmers do no damage,” according to a Green Party senator.
Wastewater treatment and agriculture are the “main sources” of water pollutants, Green Party spokesperson for rural development, Senator Róisín Garvey, told the Seanad.
“The biggest challenges to quality of water are nitrogen and phosphorus.
“People always say it is the farmers but it is not. It is some of the farmers some of the time but we cannot blame all the farmers for this,” Senator Garvey said.
Last week the Enviornmental Protection Agency (EPA) published its latest monitoring report on nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations in Irish waters 2022, which showed that nitrate concentrations were higher in 2022 than in 2021.
The report also outlined that under the terms of Ireland’s Nitrates Derogation there will be a substantial number of farm families who will have to reduce their organic nitrogen stocking rate to 220kg/ha.
But the Clare senator also highlighted last week (June 28) to the Seanad that that the EPA only has “11 enforcement officers for the entire country”.
“Until we have proper enforcement, all the farmers will get blamed when it is a minority causing the issue. They are not polluting the rivers.
“We have to call out the people doing this, rather than pitting one against the other and saying it is the farmers’ fault when it is not. Many small farmers do no damage,” the senator added.
She said that farmers are facing greater day-to-day challenges because of climate change, particularly in relation to increased rainfall.
“We have less topsoil so it is harder for fertiliser to be soaked into the land and there is increased run-off.
“Rainfall levels have changed completely since the 1980s and 1990s due to climate change. We have storm water going in with the raw sewage for treatment and even the holding tanks are too small,” Senator Garvey added.
She believes that holding tanks should be bigger.
“Water run-off with heavy rainfall going into the tanks and we have had fountains of raw sewage.
“I have photos of it. It is not just in Clare, I am sure. We cannot solve any other issue if we cannot solve our water issue,” the senator warned.