Pollution of Ireland’s largest saltwater lake in Co Wexford was allowed continue over 40 years without adequate intervention by State authorities to arrest its decline, a damning report by an Oireachtas committee concludes.
In its report on Lady’s Island Lake, a large lagoon, the Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy makes seven recommendations with a view to its full restoration.
The ecosystem has protected status under EU directives – as a special protected area for birds, and special area of conservation for habitats – but despite local efforts, run-off from dairy and tillage farms has made it heavily polluted.
An EPA-funded study published earlier this year found a five- to seven-fold reduction in nitrogen and phosphorus inputs to the lake would be necessary to return it to good ecological status. Commenting on their findings, lead author Dr Cilian Roden said it was not the story of a recent collapse.
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“This lake is not damaged. It is the most polluted lake in Ireland. It is already kaput,” he added.
Given the extent of decline, such reports were closer to “obituaries”, he said, rather than analyses that could confidently prescribe remedial actions.
Speaking following publication of the latest report on Thursday, committee chairman Naoise Ó Múirí TD said: “The continuing ecological crisis taking place at Lady’s Island Lake is a devastating example of environmental decline in Ireland today. For over 40 years, the situation has continued to deteriorate despite the efforts of the local community.
“This highlights a failure in public administration as regulations and standards were clearly insufficient to protect the lake yet no public body saw it as their responsibility to show leadership to reverse that decline,” he added.
Their recommendations were, he said, “essential to the long-term restoration of the lake”.
The committee calls for a new set of “regulations, standards and practices” for farming near large waterbodies to halt environmental decline and ensure their long-term protection.
Wexford County Council should lead the restoration with full support of the Department of Agriculture; the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage; the EPA; the National Parks & Wildlife Service; the Local Authority Waters Programme; Teagasc and Uisce Éireann, it says.
The report highlights the successful work of environmental programmes including Duncannon EIP in Co Wexford and the Lough Carra project in Co Mayo. The enthusiasm and participation of the local community and farmers surrounding Lady’s Island Lake needed to be harnessed, it says.
In accordance with the EPA report, the committee recommends “rigorous site-specific planning” to optimise chances of success.
The relevant Ministers must ensure the multi-body restoration project “is given a clear and specific mandate to restore Lady’s Island Lake to a condition similar to that before the inundation of nitrates and phosphorus in recent decades”.
They must ensure the project is adequately resourced with support for ongoing work by various stakeholders and the local community, it says.
“The setting up of a locally led agri-environment scheme, for example, could halt the lake’s decline before fully fledged restoration begins. This could include further development of buffer zones and other mitigatory measures to reduce the amount of nitrates entering the lake,” it says.
In calling for a new regulations, standards and practices, the committee says this should be done on an all-island basis “acknowledging the interconnected nature of Ireland’s lakes, rivers, streams, lagoons ... as a single biogeographic unit”.
“The action taken to restore Lady’s Island should be used as a national exemplar of community-led agri-environmental schemes and lessons learned from this process should directly inform the design of future schemes to address nutrient pollution and habitat restoration.”
