There was a significant reduction in polluting levels of nitrogen found in Irish rivers during 2024, which will support Government efforts to retain an EU derogation allowing farmers to spread higher fertiliser levels on their land.
Overall nitrogen levels fell, but the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) warned on Wednesday that nitrogen remains too high in “the southeastern half of the country” where intensive dairy farms are located, and further reductions will be needed there to bring them to satisfactory levels.
Nitrogen is a key component of fertilisers spread on land – as chemical fertilisers or farm slurry. If too much of it is in the soil, it runs into rivers and causes pollution. The EU nitrates directive allows some 3,000 Irish farmers to apply higher levels of nitrogen to their land in recognition of Ireland’s supposedly more environmentally benign grass-based production system.
Recurring pollution in Irish rivers, however, prompted the EU to tighten permissible levels that can be applied under the nitrates derogation and to issue warnings that it may be withdrawn entirely from next year. This is despite farming organisations saying this would undermine productivity, because less stock would be permitted on land.
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With the EU relying on EPA monitoring, the latest indications are a boost to efforts to retain the derogation.
While the agency acknowledges efforts by the agriculture sector to reduce nitrogen in its “early insights nitrogen indicator” for 2024, it added that “ongoing and sustained actions will be needed to reduce nutrient levels so that the ecological health of our waters can improve”.
The indicator monitors data at 20 “major and representative” rivers.
“Agriculture is the primary source of nitrogen in Irish rivers, and there is significant action under way within the sector to improve water quality. It is therefore very welcome to see these early signs of improvement,” said Dr Eimear Cotter, director of the EPA’s Office of Evidence and Assessment.
“It is important that the sector builds on this momentum and continues to implement actions to reduce nutrient losses in a targeted way,” she added.
The EPA will publish its assessment of water quality for 2019–2024 later this year. This will combine critical indicator data on nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations in water bodies with the biological quality monitoring data on fish, aquatic insects and plants, to give a comprehensive assessment of all waters.
[ Decline in nitrate levels and sewage pollution found in Irish coastal areasOpens in new window ]
EPA programme manager Jenny Deakin added: “It is very positive to see this improvement in nitrogen levels in 2024, following a period of little positive change in recent years.”
Because of recurring high levels in the southeast, further actions would be necessary to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus losses into water bodies to levels which will support good ecological health in them, she said. “The ecology will not improve until nutrient levels are reduced in the areas where they are elevated.”
Deputy president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association, Eamon Carroll, said the reduction in nitrogen concentrations in rivers showed work being done by farmers on a daily basis was yielding positive results.
Progress was testament to the collaborative model, whereby officialdom worked with farmers towards a common achievable goal, added Mr Carroll who also chairs the ICMSA farm and rural affairs committee.
If the relevant authorities continued to work collaboratively with farmers “as opposed to heaping up regulations on them then real results [will] follow”, he said.
“An absolutely critical decision on the future of Irish agriculture will be taken later this year in terms of the derogation, and the water quality data published today is certainly a vote of confidence in what we as farmers are doing.
“That has to be acknowledged and it has to be fed back into the decision-making process because – as ICMSA has repeatedly pointed out – the retention of the derogation is now the key to securing the long-term sustainability of Irish farming and the food sector ... The data certainly provides our Government with a strong basis to deliver the derogation post-2025”, Mr Carroll said.
Irish Farmers Association environment chair John Murphy said: “The early insights indicator provides a conservative estimate of the likely nitrogen concentrations nationally compared with the full national network data, which historically is typically lower.”
“The report is important and should provide confidence that the measures adopted at farm level by farmers are delivering improvements to water quality, and that the sector is on the right track,” he added.
He said there was a relentless focus by the sector to improve water quality through programmes such as the Teagasc better Farming for Water campaign and the Farming for Water EIP that are supporting farmers to implement targeted measures to deliver for water quality, and also biodiversity and climate.
“It’s vital that the findings of this report feed into the development of the next Nitrate Action Programme, and that the enormous pressure that has been placed on farmers with the constantly changing and evolving policy is lessened in the next cycle,” Mr Murphy said.
“The pace of regulatory change cannot be maintained; time must be provided for the existing measures and the targeted approach to continue to deliver improvements to water quality,” he said.
Dr Elaine McGoff, head of advocacy with An Taisce said the south and southeast was where nitrogen pollution is a serious ongoing concern. “These are the areas which overlap with the most intensive dairy farming in the country and are home to the majority of derogation farms,” she added.
“Unfortunately, this report is still bad news for those areas. Nitrogen levels are still almost 40 per cent too high in those rivers. That means that many rivers in these areas will remain significantly polluted unless stronger measures are implemented.”
What An Taisce would like to see is analysis explaining what is driving this improvement, Dr McGoff said. “It would appear to be a nationwide decrease, which indicates that it’s something which is happening at a very broad national scale, across all farm and land types.
“We need data that shows which, if any, of the measures being implemented at the moment are contributing to this reduction and then what stronger measures are needed to fill the huge gap that is still left for rivers in the South and Southeast,” she said.
“We’ve now had over a decade of water quality decline, with agriculture being one of the key drivers of that water pollution. While the apparent improvement is welcome, what we really need is clear evidence the measures being put in place by farmers are effective for adequately preventing agricultural nitrogen pollution.”
