EU begins legal action against Ireland on pollution

THE European Commission yesterday decided to initiate legal action against Ireland over its failure to monitor and control nitrate pollution of water from agricultural sources. High nitrate levels in drinking water are a health hazard, while in lakes like Lough Derg on the Shannon they can contribute to serious algal growth.

Last night the Department of the Environment issued a statement denying it had failed to monitor properly nitrates in surface water or groundwater or had failed to act against nitrate pollution.

The Commission has sent Ireland a "reasoned opinion" on the issue, the preliminary stage before proceedings are taken in the European Court of Justice.

The Commission's environment directorate argues that Irish implementing legislation is not as strict as that required by the EU's nitrates directive; that proper monitoring of water pollution was not carried out; and that control measures were not adopted.

The Commission also claims the Government issued unjustified instructions to local authorities suggesting limiting checks on individual agricultural sources and small drinking water supplies.

But the Department says a major programme of monitoring carried out by the local authorities in 1992/93 showed, in general, nitrate levels were "well below" the limit set by the directive. "As a consequence there was no basis for designating vulnerable zones under the directive in Ireland" the statement said.

In the limited number of cases where excessive levels were discovered, the Department says, these were due to highly localised cases of farmyard pollution associated with cracked septic tanks or leaking slurry pits and were "not amenable to the type of remedial measures envisaged under the directive."

The polluters were pursued under existing water pollution legislation.

The Department also says monitoring confirms the absence of nitrate pollution problems in Irish drinking water.