Two Donegal landowners have been interviewed regarding possible water pollution and illegal waste disposal at a lake where 33 swans were found dead in the past week.

A spokesman for the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) confirmed that one landowner has been cautioned as investigations continue to establish the cause of death of the birds at New Lake, Dunfanaghy.

Early reports suggest the birds died as a result of poisoning caused by a pollutant in the water.

However, a spokesperson for the department said it was too early to say what caused the multiple deaths. 

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Environmentalist and broadcaster Duncan Stewart has claimed an immediate ban on smoky fuel would save 1,500 lives over the next three years.

And he challenged Environment Minister Phil Hogan over a plan to delay outlawing the sale of smoky coal. Mr Stewart said the Government had no excuse to delay a planned ban, and suggested that it was by far one of the most damaging risks to public health. At the weekend, Mr Hogan announced a joint north–south study on the quality of air throughout the island of Ireland. The study will assess levels of air pollution from residential solid fuel. 

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Pesticides from 12 salmon farms have contaminated lochs around Scotland’s coast in breach of safety limits, according to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa).

Environmental monitoring by Sepa, the government watchdog, over the last three years has discovered high levels of toxic chemicals in sediments from the Firth of Lorn, the Isle of Lewis, the northwest Highlands and Shetland. Fish farmers use the chemicals to kill the lice that eat away at salmon.

By far the worst pollution was found in Loch Shell on the east of Lewis near a fish farm operated by the Norwegian–owned company, Marine Harvest. 

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Environmental and health damage from cement plants nearing €2bn, claims MD Cement body spokesman rejects O’Riain’s claims as ‘grossly inaccurate’The traditional cement sector in Ireland has reacted angrily to the claim from Ecocem managing director Donal O’Riain that the cost of the environmental and health damage caused by its plants since 2000 is nearing €2 billion.

Cost to health Mr O’Riain, who is to address a conference on the built environment in Dublin on Wednesday, is to tell the conference that by far the biggest cost of cement manufacturing, equivalent to 63 per cent of its selling price, is the cost to the environment and to health.“That is what economists call an externality. It is of course a classic and dangerous form of market failure,” he told The Irish Times. He suggested the issue could be addressed by pollution taxes or tradable emissions permits.

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The numbers of seabirds affected by a sticky substance in the sea off south–west England over the past week could be far greater than those harmed by a similar – or possibly the same – spill earlier this year. Wildlife agencies in Devon and Cornwall said numbers of birds killed or rendered helpless could reach “thousands” and that “a whole generation of seabirds” may have been wiped out in a single pollution incident.

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 Long–term exposure to chronic air pollution is indirectly killing the equivalent of one person here every three hours, and costing the economy a massive €6.3bn a year.

Heritage group An Taisce made the shocking claim yesterday in an attempt to underline the need for urgent action on the issue in this country. According to World Health Organisation figures obtained by the independent group, 3,400 people are dying in Ireland every year as an indirect result of long–term exposure to air pollution. 

The issue is not the primary cause of these deaths. However, An Taisce said the fatalities are in part due to the likely contributory impact of pollution from diesel cars, trucks and buses on the wider public’s health.

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Cost–cutting property developers who bypass the sewerage network are helping ensure that the water quality at one of Northern Ireland’s most popular seaside resorts is among the worst in Europe. Overflowing sewer pipes and increased discharge from farm waste have also been blamed for bacterial pollution at Newcastle beach in Co Down. Developers who bypass the water treatment network in an attempt to slash their costs have also had a detrimental impact, the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) said. “Livestock waste from the fields behind Newcastle, a lack of capacity in Newcastle and mis–connected plumbing all act together to drag down the water quality,” said Robert Keirle, pollution programme manager with the MCS.

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 Further delays in carrying out a long–awaited extension to Killarney’s sewerage network could exacerbate pollution problems in Kerry’s world–famous lakes.

A planned €1m extension of the public sewerage scheme to the scenic Aghadoe area will not commence for several years, Kerry County Council has advised. The area has experienced a large increase in residential development in recent years, mainly serviced by septic tanks. 

Independent councillor Brendan Cronin said there was a massive need for a sewerage scheme in an area which had so many septic tanks. “This area has a large number of private houses and tourism developments and the high concentration of septic tanks could have implications for the lakes,” he said.

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 An Bord Pleanala upholds the decision made by Westmeath County Council

An Bord Pleana has upheld a decision made by Westmeath County Council in April last to revoke a license allowing the discharge of effluent associated with peat extraction to surface waters at Shrubbywood, Coole.

The applicant firm, Lismoher, had, on foot of a request from Westmeath County Council, reapplied in February 2012 for the license under which it had been operating since December 2000. 

That license had permitted the firm, to allow discharge from two siltation ponds at Shrubbywood into the Inny.

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 Environmental group launches a drive for more ‘whistleblowers’

Westmeath is one of the counties providing ‘rich pickings’ for peat extraction companies that are quietly – and often without planning permission – exporting large quantities of peat abroad, according to an environmental group which is bidding to bring greater regulation into the field.

Without it, warns the Friends of the Irish Environment, Ireland’s water quality will deteriorate and the country will lose vast quantities of irreplaceable peat. The group is appealing to the public to help in its bid to have local authorities begin enforcement to end exploitation of Ireland’s raised bogs by the international peat industry.

The organisation, which has placed a full page ad in the Roscommon Herald this week, wants the public to let Friends of the Irish Environment know of any areas where illegal or unsanctioned peat extraction is going on, and has set up a whistleblowers hotline on 087 2176316

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Slowly. Silently. 

The sea lettuce crisis began in 1995, writes Tony Lowes 

THE Tipping Point: Courtmacsherry, Timoleague and the sea lettuce. 

A tipping point is the scientific point when one stable state becomes a new and irreversible stable state — a threshold beyond which there is no turning back. It also refers to a certain point when a process — say climate change or the spread of an invasive species — results in a large and sudden changes of the behaviour of a system. 

The sea lettuce of Courtmacsherry and Timoleague and nearby bays, including Inchydoney, are experiencing such a phenomenon. Sea lettuce — ulva maxima — is a seaweed that flourishes when fed by nutrients. The nutrients come mainly from human sewage, animal manure run offs in slurry and industrial discharges. Its growth began slowly around the Clonakilty area about 1995.

[Includes ‘When the bay becomes a sea of salad green’, by Eddie Cassidy]

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 Italians depend on a plant that is wrecking the environment 

“Oh come on, two more tumours per year . . . That’s nothing.” 

The speaker is Fabio Riva, managing director of the Riva family–owned steel giant, Ilva, Italy’s largest steel producer and one of the biggest in Europe. The comment, recorded on June 9th, 2010, comes from a wiretap ordered by Taranto–based investigating magistrates. 

In the conversation, Riva is talking to company lawyer Francesco Perli, who warns him about forthcoming problems with the Italian senate’s environmental commission. Senators have been listening to alarming reports about the company’s plant in the southern Italian city of Taranto from the Puglia region’s regional environmental protection body. 

There is little edifying about Ilva which, in 2011, produced 8.5 million tonnes of steel, or 30 per cent of Italy’s steel production. On November 26th, judge Patrizia Todisco ordered the arrest of seven people, including Riva, his father Emilio and five other members of the Ilva management, as well as the sequestration of steel at the plant.

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Research in the Cork Harbour region has shown people living in the Cobh area believe they are at a greater risk of cancer because of a nearby chemical dump — even though no evidence exists to support those beliefs. 

Fears of a cancer cluster in the wider Cobh area emerged four–and–a–half years ago when an estimated 500,000 tonnes of chemical waste from a former steel plant was found on Haulbowline Island, just south of the East Cork town of Cobh. The waste contained traces of chromium–six, a carcinogen. 

There were calls for a baseline health study to be completed after National Cancer Registry figures showed that between 1994 and 2007, the town of Cobh had a cancer rate 37% higher than overall Irish figures. The National Cancer Registry said these figures can’t be linked to the dump at Haulbowline.

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 HOUSEHOLDERS are being enticed to pay the €50 fee to register their septic tanks with the offer of a €4,000 upgrade grant.

The Department of the Environment warned only applications from those who have registered by February 1 will be accepted.So far 290,000 people – an estimated 58pc – have now registered.

The Census showed there are around 497,000 septic tanks or waste water systems in the country.

A maximum of €4,000 will be available for households on incomes of less than €50,000. Those earning between €50,001 and €75,000 can apply for a maximum of €2,500.

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The number of people infected by a bug that causes anything from mild tummy upset to kidney failure has jumped dramatically this year, according to the latest disease surveillance report.

Public health officials have recorded a 174% rise in the rate of Verotoxigenic e.coli (VTEC) infection, which can cause severe bloody diarrhoea and stomach cramps. The implications for young children and the elderly are even more serious — a weak immune system can give rise to a complication called haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), in which the red blood cells are destroyed and the kidneys fail. This happens in up to 10% of child cases.

Paul McKeown, a consultant in public health medicine, described the statistic as “worrying” but said doctors here were quick to react, and there hadn’t been any child deaths as a result of HUS for a number of years. HUS is the principal cause of acute kidney failure in children, and the majority of cases are caused by e.coli O157.

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HAULBOWLINE Island was the site of Ireland’s only steel plant.

From a peak of 1,200 employees in 1971, ministers Ruairi Quinn and Richard Burton sold the site in 1996 to the Indian company Ispat for £1, writing off £27m in debts in return for a commitment to provide 330 jobs for five years. 

The contract included £2.3m from the State to clean up and contain the extensive toxic waste dump that made up the ‘East Tip’. 

The required wall was never built and less than £600,000 was spent. Instead, Ispat spewed toxic chemicals into the air, onto the ground, and into the sea for five years. 

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THE GOVERNMENT has been urged to introduce a grant scheme covering the entire cost of septic tank repairs, following the introduction of the septic tank inspection scheme earlier this year. 

The Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association ( ICSA) made the call in its pre–budget submission published yesterday. ICSA president Gabriel Gilmartin said rural dwellers must be treated equally with their urban counterparts “and this is the only way that can be achieved”. 

The submission points out that all urban households have full sewage disposal costs covered “and recent evidence suggests that the cost per house in urban housing developments is actually more than the potential cost of a 100 per cent grant for rural households to upgrade septic tanks”.

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People living near a toxic dump in Cork harbour will next week get the chance to ask a team of experts about plans to make the site safe.

The East Tip at Haulbowline island was discovered in the summer of 2008 and tests showed it contained a number of heavy metals and the highly carcinogenic Chromium 6. Minister for Agriculture and the Marine Simon Coveney took it upon himself at cabinet level to ensure the site is made safe and appointed Cork County Council to act as his agent on the project. 

The council is to hold a public consultation meeting in the Commodore Hotel, Cobh on Thursday Oct 11 from 6.30pm–9pm.

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 THREE in five homeowners with septic tanks will be hit with a €45 hike in the fee to register their waste systems after failing to meet a midnight deadline.

Details of the location of just 185,000 wastewater treatment systems have been forwarded to the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) –– 40pc of the total.Homeowners had until midnight last night to register their tank at a cost of €5. 

The fee increases to €50 from today, and all tanks must be registered by February 1.This means that more than 300,000 homeowners will have to pay the increased charge. Failure to register can result in a maximum fine of €5,000.

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 THE Government is set for a repeat of the household charge fiasco with less than one in 10 homeowners registering their septic tanks despite a looming deadline.

Under–pressure Environment Minister Phil Hogan announced earlier this year that a reduced registration fee of €5 would be in place until the end of September.

But new figures show just 47,000 homeowners have registered their system despite the incentive –– and more than 420,000 have failed to do so.From next Friday, the registration fee increases to €50, and all tanks must be registered by February 1 or homeowners face the prospect of fines of up to €5,000.

The Department of the Environment last night insisted that the numbers would improve, and that many households were waiting until the last minute to register.

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