THERE is a need for improved environmental protection of prime angling lakes in the west of Ireland by introducing large buffer zones around them which exclude farm and domestic wastes, according to an anglers' group.
The Carra Mask Angling Federation said such a radical measure was necessary because of the failure to control such waste entering what are classified as Europe's most important brown trout fisheries.
It has criticised what it considers the single most important [threat, "a continuing loss of large amounts of phosphate waste from agriculture into waterways due mainly to poor management and facilities on many farms and the over application of phosphate fertiliser".
The federation, which in the past has made format complaints to the European Commission about a decline in the quality of the lakes, has also outlined its plan for buffer zones around Loughs Carra, Mask, Corrib and Conn to the Commission.
This is in response to scientific evidence suggesting these freshwater locations have an extreme sensitivity to phosphorus, which mainly arises in the form of "runoffs" from farmyard waste and excess phosphorus occurring in soils from slurry and fertiliser.
A small loading of phosphate rich waste, it claimed, could lead to widespread environmental strain, if not pollution.
The federation's concerns come after the EU warned twice in the past. four months that Ireland faces possible court action in the European Court of Justice for its failure to implement two environmental directives. One relates to control of pollutants in water and the other to control of phosphate wastes. Deterioration of "the great western lakes" was cited in formal notice given to the Government The Irish Times understands.
"The Rural Environmental Protection Scheme (REPS) should be changed to restrict phosphorus current levels in such environmentally sensitive areas," the federation's spokesman, Mr Tony Waldron, said. "Soil phosphorus limits, as currently constituted, are not working in these areas."
The present scheme had the potential to improve matters and had made some progress. There was, nevertheless, a case for tighter controls and changes in farm nutrient management. "In sensitive catchments in the west of Ireland, the Department of Agriculture should encourage the use of soil injection of slurry, a source high in phosphorus.
The federation, Mr Waldron said, was concerned by continuing damage reflected in reduced catches, deteriorating water quality and increasing evidence of eutrophication, where the chemical balance of water has been upset by a pollutant.
A soils specialist with Teagasc, Dr Noel Culleton, said he understood the concerns of the federation, but stressed that the advisory body had revised its phosphorus recommendations recently, which would lead to a discernible environmental improvement. Where REPS applied on a farm, it had been effective in controlling the application of phosphorus with beneficial effects on the environment, he added.
The more focused recommendations ensured more effective application of slurry/fertiliser, he said, so farmers did not apply them unnecessarily.
It is understood the Department of Agriculture has been evaluating the revised Teagasc recommendations, but a spokesman defended the role REPS is playing in ensuring environmentally sensitive farming. Buffer zones restricting runoff of potential pollutants apply not only to rivers adjoining such farms but all water courses. Slurry, for example, cannot be applied within 1 1/2 metres of the top of river banks.
REPS regulations addressed the problem at source through a farm nutrient management plan. All nutrients and phosphate/nitrate loadings are recorded and monitored regularly.
