EPA - Ireland's Environment 2016 - An Assessment

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81 Chapter 5: Inland and Marine Waters
Outlook
Progress with Water Framework Targets
The slow progress in improving the ecological
status of surface waters means that new
approaches are needed.
The target of 13.6% improvement in ecological status
for surface waters from the 2009 baseline by 2015
included in the first cycle RBMPs has not been achieved
(EPA, 2015b, 2016a). Instead, the overall situation has
not changed during the first river basin planning cycle.
A radically different approach is required to target
management measures to where they are needed. There is
an opportunity to improve implementation under the new
water governance structures recently put in place and by
using the integrated catchment management approach
supported by better evidence and science.
Agricultural Policy and Water Protection
It is doubtful whether current agricultural initiatives will
offer the solutions needed unless adjustments are made.
The reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP),
particularly the greening aspect and link to payments,
is welcome. However, there has been some criticism
that the policy proposals from the Commission were
weakened extensively during negotiations and do not
effectively meet the standards necessary to combat
environmental degradation by the agricultural sector
(Hart et al., 2016). The effectiveness of the reform
will need to be monitored and further reform may be
necessary following the next review.
The national farm inspection regime is currently focussed
on the farmyard. However, a significant proportion of
pollution can arise from agricultural land. The new risk-
based approach to identifying potential Critical Source
Areas (CSA) of pollution, which is being promoted by the
EPA, will greatly assist in focusing management measures
where they will be most effective. This will be particularly
critical to ensuring that agricultural expansion plans under
Food Wise 2025 are achieved in an environmentally
sustainable manner and not at the expense of water
quality.
The National Action Programme under the Nitrates
Directive is due to be reviewed again in 2017. This
will provide an opportunity to evaluate the need to
amend existing farm management measures under the
programme. Critical inputs to informing this review will
come from, among others, the ACP led by Teagasc, the
environmental risk assessments currently being undertaken
and led by the EPA and the findings of the Cosaint
research project investigating the impact of cattle access
to waters.
Local Community Initiatives
Community involvement has the potential
to contribute significantly towards effective
catchment management.
The approach to catchment management to date has
consisted largely of top-down regulation. To deliver
significant improvements in the condition of waters it will be
important to generate and harness bottom-up community
involvement and ownership of the environmental issues,
for example through the formation of River Trusts. The
Sustainable Water Network (SWAN) has called for action
at local level as well as a stakeholder forum at national
level – a National Stakeholder Forum that would facilitate
policy input.20 Funding available under the new sub-theme
“Protection and Sustainable use of Water Resources”
under LEADER will potentially provide one valuable means
of kick-starting communities to initiate local catchment
projects. Local authorities in the context of their revised role
in the new water governance arrangements are tasked with
providing support and advice to communities through a
team of water community officers to be established in 2016.
Local community initiatives, with the support of the
LAWCO, have the potential to tackle threats to water
protection and restoration more effectively by examining
the risks and developing tailored solutions at a local level.
Domestic Waste Water
Initiatives to improve the stock of septic tanks and
sludge management need to continue.
A recent research project highlighted the management
of domestic waste water sludge and, in particular, the
inadequate infrastructural provision as significant issues of
concern (EPA, 2014b). These issues need to be addressed
by policymakers and in Irish Water’s Capital Investment
Programme, through its Water Services Strategic Plan and
the Strategic Sludge Management Plan.
Urban Waste Water
Investment and operational improvements in urban
waste water are needed.
With regard to the auditing and monitoring of urban
waste water discharges, the EPA carried out over 300
audits and found that a programme for maintenance
and operation of all plant and equipment was not in
place in 26 of the areas audited. The EPA also conducted
independent effluent monitoring at 263 treatment plants,
and found that 71 failed to comply with effluent quality
standards set in EPA licences. Clearly, in order to protect
water quality, improvements in these areas are needed,
as well as in the more obvious areas where raw sewage is
being discharged without treatment.
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