| MINISTER DEFIED EU COMMISSIONER ON SLURRY SPREADING |
| FIE has found that in spite of an unequivocal statement by the European Commissioner for the Environment that no extension to the slurry spreading season be permitted in Ireland, the Minister for the Environment extended this period into the last two weeks of October. This period saw some of the heaviest rainfall in Irish history, washing the slurry into drinking water sources across Ireland. Ireland now has the highest rate in Europe of two of the diseases caused by slurry in drinking water, cryptosporidium and STEC [e.coli]. With only token set-backs of 2 metres from our drinking water abstraction bodies, contamination of water supplies by slurry spreading is creating a direct danger to public health and consequent cost to the health service. The group has written to the European Commissioner and to the Minister for Health, Dr. James O'Reilly. With ever increasing production, farmers must be required to use separation or anaerobic digesters on this ‘waste' to reduce the need for slurry spreading and prevent the health risks of contamination of the country's drinking water. // Read More // |  |
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| Posted By Tony Lowes on 15/11/2011 ( Reads : 317 ) | Comments (0) | Water quality |
| Ireland's contaminated drinking water |
| FIE's work on analysing the failure by Local Authorities to provide clean and wholesome drinking water has shown that 1,153,732 people are receiving water that is seriously and persistently over the legal parameters. These supplies have been placed by the EPA on the Remedial Action List which the law requires the public to be notified - but there has been virtually no public notification whatsoever. And the Remedial Action List only reveals public supplies in need of urgent action. No mention is made of private or public group water schemes which cover a further 500,000 people and are generally poorer in quality. Read about this in the Irish Times. | Read our Press Briefing | See the top ten problems, from cryptosporidium to disinfectant by products | Read our request to the EPA to remove the password protection from their on-line databases that is concealing then true state of our drinking water from the public. Contact us if you want to know about the water quality in your area. admin@friendsoftheirishenvironment.org // Read More // |  |
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| Posted By Tony Lowes on 07/11/2011 ( Reads : 297 ) | Comments (0) | Water quality |
| Water quality data EPA request |
The Secretary,
The Environmental Protection Agency,
Johnstown Castle,
Co. Wexford
7 November, 2011email only info@epa.ie RE: Water Quality data request under Access to Information on the Environment legislation (Directive 2003/4/EC and its Irish implementing Statutory Instrument No 133 of 2007) Dear Sirs; We have received from you after an individual request a disc containing water quality monitoring results from 2008 & 2009 in electronic reusable data format with the data on which your 2011 publication ‘The Provision and Quality of Drinking Water in Ireland 2008 - 2009' was based. // Read More // |  |
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| Posted By Tony Lowes on 07/11/2011 ( Reads : 416 ) | Comments (1) | Water quality |
| SEPTIC TANK LEGISLATION 'IRRESPONSIBLE' |
| Friends of the Irish Environment said the proposal risk based inspection programme for septic tanks would not meet the terms of the European judgment. ‘The model used in County Cavan which was specifically singled out as satisfactory in the Judgment of the European Court requires that all septic tanks are registered and inspected at periodic intervals. The Government's proposal does not meet that standard and so risks further infringement proceedings, as well as leaving the environment at risk from the estimated one-third of the 400,000 septic tanks across Ireland that are currently polluting the environment. The omission of a requirement to inspect septic tanks in new dwellings and those being sold is particularly irresponsible.' // Read More // |  |
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| Posted By Tony Lowes on 04/11/2011 ( Reads : 249 ) | Comments (0) | Water quality |
| CALL FOR EPA TO ISSUE WATER WARNING NOTICES AS TREATMENT PLANTS CLOSED |
| The environmental watchdog Friends of the Irish Environment has called for The EPA to notify consumers of exceedences of World Health Organisation [WHO] chemical standards in public water supplies. According to figures released to the group under Access to Information on the Environment, almost 600,000 consumers are receiving water that exceeds the WHO limits for the cancer-causing chemicals known as trihalomethanes [THM]. 24 Counties had supplies over the THM limit. 14 Counties had double the limit. The current EPA Remedial Action list has 33 treatment plants due for upgrading because of THM exceedences, with 7 water sources listed for abandonment and 3 plants listed for closure. Some of these have no dates for work and yet no public notices have been issued while the water continues to be consumed.
PRESS RELEASE | EPA Chemical exceedences spreadsheet by population | Chemical Exceedences spreadsheet edited to show THMs only for 598,591 consumers Media Coverage The fact is that 153 Water Supply Zones (WSZ) of the 979 tested (there are 2157 WSZ) exceed the safe WHO limit, providing 598,951 people with this water. Only the EPA could translate this into 99% compliance and only RTE could not report it when the true figures emerge. // Read More // |  |
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| Posted By Tony Lowes on 24/08/2011 ( Reads : 305 ) | Comments (3) | Water quality |
| CALL FOR EPA TO ISSUE WATER WARNING NOTICES AS TREATMENT PLANTS CLOSED |
| The environmental watchdog Friends of the Irish Environment has called for The EPA to notify consumers of exceedences of World Health Organisation [WHO] chemical standards in public water supplies. According to figures released to the group under Access to Information on the Environment, almost 600,000 consumers are receiving water that exceeds the WHO limits for the cancer-causing chemicals known as trihalomethanes [THM]. 24 Counties had supplies over the THM limit. 14 Counties had double the limit. The current EPA Remedial Action list has 33 treatment plants due for upgrading because of THM exceedences, with 7 water sources listed for abandonment and 3 plants listed for closure. Some of these have no dates for closure and yet no public notices have been issued while the water continues to be consumed. // Read More // | |
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| Posted By Tony Lowes on 24/08/2011 ( Reads : 469 ) | Comments (0) | Water quality |
| Shannon Water for Dublin |
| FIE has entered the controversy over Bord na Mona's plan to pipe water from the River Shannon to Dublin, suggesting that this big-buck solution is based on outdated growth projections and will overwhelm the more sustainable options - including advance waster water treatment, two supply systems, rain water harvesting, local ground water, reduction in consumption - and leakage. In particular, FIE is concerned about the recent EPA report shwoing that levels in 16.1% of public water supplies and 31% of public group water schemes now exceed the World Health Organisation's recommended limits for tri-halo methanes [THM]. THMs are a cancer-causing by-product of the chlorination of peaty water. Read Our Letter to the Irish Examiner. // Read More // |  |
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| Posted By Tony Lowes on 08/08/2011 ( Reads : 289 ) | Comments (0) | Water quality |
| Dramatic increase in cancer-causing chemicals in Irish drinking water supplies |
| In the wide spread media praise for the EPA's recent "Provision and Quality of Drinking Water in Ireland", a dramatic increase in cancer causing chemicals from 4.0% in 2008 to 16.1% in 2009 went entirely unreported in the media. 'Trihalomethanes' [THMs - 'tri-halo-methane'] - which result in increased cancer and other diseases - are a by-product of the use of chlorine to disinfect water with too much organic material - typically the ‘peaty' colour produced by the drainage of bogs. FIE has been campaigning for two years to have the EPA determine the cause of the release of the organic materials - forestry and peat extraction particularly - to enable the polluter pays principle to be brought into use. The EPA flatly refuses to do this research, and the media obliges by refusing to cover the issue. Why does this remind us of cryptosporidium, where it took dramatic outbreaks of illness to force the authorities to address the issue? The figures for 2009 show that 16 per cent of all water supplies now fail the safe limits set by the World Health Organisation for THMs. For public group water schemes the figure is much higher with 31% of supplies exceeding the WHO limits. 158 supplies failed to comply, but of the 28 Directions issues to Local Authorities to improve water supplies only 4 were for trihalomethanes. // Read More // |  |
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| Posted By Tony Lowes on 25/02/2011 ( Reads : 6633 ) | Comments (0) | Water quality |
| Appeal on peat pollution |
| FIE has submitted a last minute appeal to the Department of the Environment to try and have the issue of diffuse pollution caused by peat extraction and forestry addressed in the River Basin District Plans. These Plans must be published under EU law by 21 December, 2009. FIE only this week became aware that its submission was excluded from those made by the multi-stakeholder body SWAN through which we had submitted. We are also writing to the Minister, pointing out we now have letters from the Department of Agriculture's Forest Service, Coillte Teo., the State Forestry Board, and the Environmental Protection Agency, and that none of these bodies have available the amount of forestry on peat soils in each River Basin District Catchments. Read the appeal letter. // Read More // |  |
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| Posted By Tony Lowes on 19/12/2009 ( Reads : 766 ) | Comments (0) | Water quality |
| Farm Plastics letter |
John Gormley, TD The Minister for the Environment, Customs House, Dublin 1 minister@environ.ie 18 October, 2007 Re: Appropriate assessment of farm plastic waste Dear Minister; We write out of concerns that have been raised about the export of farm plastic waste as we understand that your Department is preparing Guidelines for Dublin City Council, the new competent national authority for waste export, to address this issue. // Read More // | |
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| Posted By Tony Lowes on 21/10/2007 ( Reads : 3022 ) | Comments (0) | Water quality |
| 22 MARCH: 'ABSOLUTE FAILURE' BY EPA AS EU THREATENS DAILY FINES |
| As the European Commission informs Ireland that drinking water must be kept free of contamination or it will face daily fines, we draw attention to the absolute failure of the EPA to use its powers to require Local Authorities to take all steps to bring the inadequate water supplies up to the legal minimum standard with a specified period of time.
In the case of Galway and the current cryptosporidium outbreak, filtration alone will eliminate this dangerous protozoa. Even slow sand filtration will remove cryptosporidium. This is hardly rocket science.
The Commission recently levied a one-off fine of 20 million euros against France for what it called "persistent infringements" of fishing regulations with a further payment of 57.76 million euros for every six-month period from the decision until compliance.
Read our full Press Release. // Read More // | |
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| Posted By the editors on 22/03/2007 ( Reads : 1709 ) | Comments (0) | Water quality |
| Ryan Tubridy & Tony Lowes on the balloon ban |
| RTE Radio One: The Morning Show
Ryan Tubridy & Tony Lowes on the balloon ban
RT: Now there's a lobby group based in West Cork which is calling for a ban on the release of mass balloons, do you know where hundreds or thousands of balloons are let out to commemorate an event, some our friends in the United States are probably a little more fond of that we are. But it seems that this was sparked by earlier this summer when President Mary McAleese attended the 20th anniversary of the commemoration for those who dies in the Air India disaster off West Cork. 329 balloons were released, one for each of the victims of the tragedy, and this act prompted our next guest, who is going to join us now, to call for the a ban on such acts for environmental reasons. Tony Lowes, spokesperson for the Friends of the Irish Environment, good morning Tony. // Read More // | |
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| Posted By the editors on 24/08/2005 ( Reads : 10361 ) | Comments (0) | Water quality |
| 18 MAY: RURAL HOUSING GUIDELINES IGNORE SUSPENSION OF WATER PROTECTION SCHEME |
| FIE is seeking the restoration of the Groundwater Protection Scheme [GPS] which has been suspended for the past two years. The GPS enables planners and licensing authorities to assess the vulnerability of aquifers, our groundwater storage, to developments on the surface like one-off houses. The scheme has been suspended with more than half of Ireland uncompleted in spite of the fact that it is called a 'critical' element in the draft Guidelines for Sustainable Rural Development. Read FIE's address to the International Association of Hydrologist on how the suspension can effect the National Development Plan and check to see the status of the suspended scheme in your own area in the GSI on-line map. Press Release. // Read More // | |
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| Posted By the editors on 18/05/2004 ( Reads : 1982 ) | Comments (0) | Water quality |
| Letter to the Irish Times on Groundwater |
| Madam;
It is difficult to understand how Minister Cullen's Draft Guidelines on Sustainable Rural Housing can call the Groundwater Protection Scheme [GPS] a 'critical element' in his proposals to permit large numbers of one-off houses in rural areas. // Read More // | |
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| Posted By the editors on 18/05/2004 ( Reads : 2136 ) | Comments (0) | Water quality |
| Submission on Sustainable Rural Housing Guidelines |
| Dear Sirs;
On 25 November, 2002, our organisation made a submission to the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources 'Statement of Strategy 2002-2005'. This submission sought greater resources for the Geological Service of Ireland's [GSI] Groundwater Section in order to reinstitute the Groundwater Protection Scheme [GPS]. // Read More // | |
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| Posted By the editors on 04/05/2004 ( Reads : 2223 ) | Comments (0) | Water quality |
| HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE EPA WATER QUALITY FIGURES |
| THE EPA WILL ASK YOU TO COUNT THE NUMBER OF SAMPLES AND USE THE PERCENTAGE OF SAMPLES THAT HAVE FAILED AS A GUIDE TO HOW POLLUTED OUR WATER IS. WE ARE COUNTING THE NUMBER OF WATER SCHEMES WHICH ARE POLLUTED EACH YEAR. // Read More // | |
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| Posted By the editors on 06/09/2003 ( Reads : 2085 ) | Comments (0) | Water quality |
| Doherty Objection 25 November 2001 Planning |
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This appeal seeks to bring into force a standard testing of existing septic tanks when extensions are applied for. The local authority has sought further information from the applicant. // Read More // | |
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| Posted By Gabi on 15/04/2003 ( Reads : 2171 ) | Comments (0) | Water quality |
| Submission Killarney study July 1999 Planning |
| SUBMISSION TO KILARNEY 2020 STUDY
We would draw the Study's attention to the European Economic Community Directive 91/271/EEC of 21 May, 1991 concerning urban waste-water treatment and its relationship to development control. Our reading of this Directive is that by virtue of its expansion and the sensitivity if its location Killarney is an "agglomeration" which requires the collection and treatment of waste water under this Directive. // Read More // | |
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| Posted By Gabi on 09/04/2003 ( Reads : 2029 ) | Comments (0) | Water quality |
| Summary of water quality concerns |
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| Posted By Gabi on 08/04/2003 ( Reads : 2005 ) | Comments (0) | Water quality |
| Private letter to the Editor of the Irish Times |
| "He who doesn't want to hear must feel!" Private letter to the Editor of the Irish Times 12.01.00 // Read More // | |
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| Posted By Gabi on 08/04/2003 ( Reads : 1969 ) | Comments (0) | Water quality |
