The recovery of Ireland’s largest saltwater lagoon, Lady’s Island Lake, will take years after four decades of ignored pollution, a special meeting to discuss its future has heard.
TDs, Senators, councillors, local campaign groups and representatives of State bodies met in Wexford on Friday to review progress on a rescue plan for the lake.
Campaigners expressed frustration at the lack of information on the plan and its implementation from the strategic oversight group appointed last year to take charge of the rescue.
Dr Claire Murphy, spokeswoman for the Save Lady’s Island Lake campaign group, said the community had no knowledge of what actions were planned or prioritised, what the timescale would be, whether the group had enforcement powers or if co-operation would be voluntary.
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There had been no formal contact between the oversight group and the campaign group, she said.
“The wider community and public deserve answers. They have been waiting for decades,” she said.
Lady’s Island Lake, a relatively rare coastal lagoon popular with tourists and pilgrims, turned entirely green last year after being gradually smothered by algal growth for more than 40 years.
Almost all other life in the lake has died and an Oireachtas environment committee report said it was in “ecological crisis”.
Analysis laid the blame on a deluge of nitrogen and phosphates from animal waste and fertilisers from farming and human waste and chemicals from malfunctioning septic tanks.
It found nitrogen and phosphate levels were seven times the maximum a lake of its kind would be able to cope with.
[ Report condemns decline of Ireland’s largest saltwater lake over 40 yearsOpens in new window ]
The Government allocated €700,000 to Wexford County Council to lead and support a strategic oversight group, with members drawn from the local authority sector, farming bodies and the National Parks & Wildlife Service last year.
The funding envisages a five-year project but Eamonn Hore, deputy chief executive of Wexford County Council, said there was no guarantee the lake would be back to health by then. Senator Malcolm Noonan, a member of the Oireachtas environment committee, said it was looking more like 20 years.
Hore said the lake should be in a better place in five years but agreed the work would not be complete by then. He said a senior executive scientist and a clerical officer would be hired for the five years but interviews had not taken place yet.
Water sampling of 13 streams that run into the lake had begun but a year’s worth of sampling would be needed to have a clear picture of the most serious pollution sources.
Most farms in the catchment area had been inspected and 41 per cent of them had been found to be non-compliant with some aspect of environmental management but most of these were minor infringements and the rate was in line with the national average.
Thirty septic tanks in the vicinity of the lake had been inspected and 57 per cent failed the quality test. A further 30 were due for testing this month.
Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore, a member of the Oireachtas environment committee, expressed concern that there was nothing in the funding or recovery plan about tracking the status of wildlife in the lake.
Hore said there would need to be more funding to widen the scope of the project.
Whitmore said the oversight group needed to go back to the Government and ask for funding to employ an ecologist.
TDs also urged the group to seek 100 per cent upfront funding for septic tank repair and replacement in the area. Current grants do not cover the full cost and are only paid to households after work is carried out.
